BRICK TOWNSHIP — New equipment that would allow township police to scan license plates into a computerized database was the topic of considerable debate at a recent Township Council meeting.
The scanner is a camera mounted on a police car that photographs license plates of passing vehicles in a manner similar to how the EZ-Pass system works, Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis said after the meeting.
The system then runs the license plate of the vehicle to check if the vehicle’s registered owner has any outstanding criminal warrants. If it comes up with a hit, the information is relayed to the officer so he can pull the vehicle over, the mayor said.
Is the device that scans cars and drivers simply for driving on Brick roads a violation of due process?
“Are there people driving cars through Brick Township today that have aggravated assault warrants out, thefts, drug possessions, maybe people driving through the Garden State Parkway that have a warrant out for murder, something like that?” the mayor said. “There may be. I guess it’s the same old thing. If you are not doing anything wrong, why would you worry about it?”
“I’m not so sure if I am concerned about probable cause because they are not pulling people over,” Acropolis added. “All they are doing is reading the license plate, and the reason you have the license plate on the car is to be able to identify them.”
Scanning all vehicles prevents discrimination on the basis of age or race, he said.
“If you are driving a vehicle in Brick and this license plate reader reads your license plate and you have an outstanding warrant, you are going to be pulled over, and rightfully so,” Acropolis said.
The scanner will increase driver safety for police officers, who would no longer have to manually type in license plate numbers while driving. It will also increase law enforcement communication between Ocean County’s three largest municipalities. Lakewood and Toms River are also installing the system and database, the mayor said.
The topic came up in response to an agenda item that would allow the township to accept a $20,140 grant from the federal government to pay the complete cost of installing the system into one of the department’s patrol cars.
Councilman Michael Thulen was concerned that the upkeep costs, estimated at about $2,000 per year, would not be covered by the grant. If the scanners were eventually installed in all patrol cars, that amount gets multiplied by 100.
“I just want to make sure we are going to use the product that we got,” Thulen said.
Acropolis said the equipment would increase efficiency for the department officers on traffic patrol. The device can scan one license plate per second, he said.
Township Administrator Scott M. Pezarras said the system automatically notifies the officer if there are any outstanding warrants for the scanned vehicle.
Thulen asked if the system records its scanning activities. He said he wants a daily report generated by the system, so the council could compare the efficiency of the new system in the amount of cars pulled over and traffic fines generated versus those patrol cars still using the current system.
“I don’t know if it’s a value to have the product,” Thulen said.
Acropolis said any reports should include the types of arrests that were made.
“I would like the councilman to put a price tag on getting that person with an aggravated assault charge off the road,” Acropolis said.
The grant only calls for the installation of the unit in one car and includes the software, Pezarras said.
Thulen asked if the car with the unit would be on the road 24 hours a day. Councilman Brian DeLuca asked if the system could be moved from car to car to keep it on the road at all times.
Acropolis said he thought the system would have to be permanently mounted into a single patrol car.
“The ultimate goal is to get these types of cameras, as well as recording cameras, in all of our [police] vehicles,” he said. “I would imagine the license plate detector reader would be in all the vehicles at some point down the road.”
The council eventually voted unanimously to accept the grant.
“I think we are very fortunate to have a year to learn about this piece of equipment — how it works, how it runs — and it does not cost us anything, so when we have this conversation next year, we will have a better feel for what it can and cannot do,” said council President Joseph Sangiovanni.