Detroit, MI
License plate readers added to some Metro Detroit freeways — How they work
Police add license plate readers to some Metro Detroit freeways
Michigan State Police will start utilizing license plate readers on some freeways in Metro Detroit in an try to assist remedy crimes corresponding to street rage incidents and shootings. For now, the readers are on two roads have seen many of those incidents lately.
DETROIT (FOX 2) – License plate readers are popping up on some Metro Detroit freeways the place shootings and street rage incidents have been widespread lately.
As a part of a pilot program headed by Michigan State Police, the readers have been going up alongside the Southfield Freeway and I-96.
“It is going to permit the investigators to enter that database that is solely stored for 30 days, go into that database, have a look in there. See what autos had been in that space that matches that witness description, after which they’d have the ability to examine these vehicles additional,” MSP F/Lt. Mike Shaw mentioned.
Shaw says that if the readers had been on the freeways final week, police could have tracked down the shooter who dumped a person’s physique on the ramp from the Southfield Freeway to I-96 extra rapidly. They had been capable of finding the suspected shooter, Rayquin Desean Patrick, who’s now dealing with expenses.
Crews started putting in dozens of the readers earlier this week.
These readers are just like those used at toll cubicles in different states to catch drivers who do not pay.
Shaw mentioned the readers will solely be used to resolve crimes corresponding to shootings that occur on the roads. They won’t be used for site visitors offenses, corresponding to rushing, because the cameras don’t detect pace and it’s unlawful to make use of cameras for this objective in Michigan.
Warren police credit score license plate readers with serving to remedy violent crimes
License plate readers have raised privateness and profiling considerations as different communities look so as to add them. Worries about reader misuse even led to the American Civil Liberties Union proposing pointers that legislation enforcement businesses ought to observe in the event that they select to implement the know-how.
Nonetheless, Shaw mentioned that the readers should not have facial recognition and are solely grabbing pictures of the again of autos.
“All it does is takes an image of the license plate and the rear finish of the automobile. It does not give registered proprietor info or something. That is one thing the detectives must go into and type of take a look at and attempt to discover suspects for it,” he mentioned. “As know-how will get higher we use it to battle crime and use it to make our cities and our state safer.”
This know-how may ultimately be discovered across the state.