The City of Boynton Beach will soon install 23 license plate readers throughout the city. Commissioners approved the move earlier this week.
But what does that mean? How to they work in the effort to fight crime?
The Delray Beach Police Department has been using license plate readers for almost a year now.
Most of them are stationed at intersections throughout the city. If a car drives through with plates connected to a crime, the officers know exactly where to go.
Just Thursday morning Delray Beach PD tracked down a stolen vehicle from a neighboring county.
“We were able to recover the vehicle and get it to the rightful owner,” said Detective Michael Shiner.
The mistake the criminal made was driving through Delray Beach.
Shiner explained the car drove through one of the city's intersections with an automatic license plate reader.
“There’s so many vehicles that go through and we’re only looking at and we’re only looking for the vehicles on the FDLE Hotlist,” said Shiner.
When the car was reported stolen, the license plate was entered into a law enforcement data base.
When that vehicle passed through Delray Beach, the license plate reader flagged it. Dispatch confirmed the plates, that the car was stolen and sent officers to the area.
It also works for cars involved in crimes. Shiner said it helped him solve a recent burglary.
“Being able to prove that a vehicle was in a location after the suspect was denying it, and I showed him the photo, he coughed up and confessed to everything.”
These are the very reasons why Boynton Beach Mayor Steven Grant says his city approved a pilot program to have 23 license plate readers stationed throughout the city.
“The goal I have with the license plate readers is to make sure the city is safe,” said Grant.
Boynton is getting them for free through the same company that does their red light cameras.
And for anyone questioning whether its an overreach, the mayor, who is also a lawyer, says this:
“Being a person on a road you don’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Just like if you entered a store, you don’t have that same sort of privacy,” said Grant. “What my hope is, it will let future criminals know that they should not come to Boynton Beach because they will be caught."
The City of Boynton already has at least 2 readers but those are for the patrol vehicles.
These 23 will be stationed throughout the city. The contract is through 2021.
