New license plate scanners have helped Waco police recover at least four stolen vehicles and catch a line on an accused felon in the two weeks since the equipment was installed.

Three of those vehicles were found during a single shift, police spokesman Sgt. Melvin Roseborough said.

“It also located a vehicle that was involved with several forgeries and other felony offenses,” he said. “I think that’s an important out-of-the-gate start.”

Waco PD officer Mike Hubbard uses his patrol car computer to look at images taken with roof-mounted license plate scanners.
Duane A. Laverty/Tribune-Herald

Two of the department’s patrol cars have been outfitted with the scanners, which use technology known as automatic license plate recognition.

Approved by Waco City Council in June, the scanner system carried an initial cost of about $65,000.

Four cameras mounted on the patrol cars scan a full 360 degrees, reading the license plates of cars in parking lots and out on the roads using optical character recognition. The numbers are automatically cross-checked against a database containing information about stolen vehicles and vehicles identified as being associated with a crime.

The system also is equipped to scan for partial license plate numbers given by eyewitnesses to crimes, Roseborough said.

When there is a hit, the officers are automatically alerted to the vehicle via an onboard computer, he said.

Nationwide and local crime trends reflect a drop in reported vehicle thefts.

Waco has seen a dramatic reduction in auto thefts since 2005, when 692 vehicles were reported stolen, compared with 334 in 2009, according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports.

Last year, Waco police were able to recover about 118 stolen vehicles, Roseborough said.

But officials are hopeful that the new equipment will increase that rate.

“It’s a kind of pilot program to see how it will work,” Roseborough said.

Waco Police Chief Brent Stroman said he wants to ensure further success of the scanning program before purchasing equipment for other squad cars at a cost of $16,000 per vehicle.

“They’re not cheap — they’re an expensive piece of equipment,” he said. “I want to make sure we are using our money properly.”

He noted that “officers who have used them like them.”

Seeking success

A major key to the effectiveness of automatic license plate recognition systems is their use, said Fred Lohmann, director of operations for the National Insurance Crime Bureau. The organization annually releases a “top 10” list of auto-theft hot spots and has been involved with a number of projects involving the use of the ALPRs.

The scanners, shown here on a Waco Police Department squad car, are capable of reading thousands of license plates an hour.
Duane A. Laverty / Tribune-Herald

“The whole thing about license plate readers, especially mobile units, is you have to deploy them and use them — and use them appropriately in the high-crime areas,” he said. “We know from experience that when used in other areas, they are not successful.”

It comes down to simple math, Lohmann said.

The more the patrol unit is used, the higher the number of license plate reads, increasing the chances of vehicle recoveries.

“These ALPRs can read literally thousands of plates per hour,” he said. “The number of reads is (essential) to the number of recoveries you’re going to get.”

kcrow@wacotrib.com

757-5748

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