By Amy Batista, Special Writer
FLORENCE — Nov. 19, Township Council members were presented with the Police Department’s newest addition to its fleet — equipped with state-of-the-art technology.
Chief Alvin Scully told the Register-News on Nov. 16 that the Tahoe “has a new design, and it is equipped with an automatic license plate reader. There are currently 12 of these units in service in Burlington County and, as of yesterday, these 12 units have read over three million tags on vehicles.”
According to Chief Scully, this system is coordinated through the county, who collects and stores the data that is gathered and keeps it on file for five years.
“The county holds the database over a central communications,” said Capt. Brian Boldizar on Nov. 30. “So all of the towns within Burlington County that have the license plate reader, they all get downloaded to the database at central. And then, what we can do is, we can look into the sysýPage=001 Column=001 OK,0003.03þ
tem and (identify) if we have a tag that was involved in an investigation.”
Chief Scully said, “Our mayor and council are very supportive of our agency, and we certainly want it to stay that way . . . We share information with them when major incidents occur, answer their questions and certainly like them to see what their officers are doing and what the world of policing has come to as well as the advancements of technology that are available.”
Council President Jerry Sandusky, along with council members David Woolston and Paul Ostrander, were given a demonstration by Chief Scully and Captain Boldizar on how the automatic license plate reader works.
The councilmen were driven around a few streets in the new Tahoe.
“It is constantly reading tags whereas the officer is not supposed to type on the computer while they are driving,” Capt. Boldizar said. “This system automatically captures the tags as they are driving by them, and it is no invasion of their privacy because the only time that the officer will be alerted is to anything is when there is a problem ýPage=001 Column=002 OK,0008.03þ
with the tag.”
These problems include having an unregistered vehicle, suspended vehicle or being a stolen vehicle listed by the National Crime Information Center’s stolen vehicle or missing person cases.
Capt. Boldizar said, “It’s a huge resource.”
“I can tell you that Councilman Paul Ostrander and the other council members were very impressed with the automatic license plate reader,” said Township Administrator Richard Brook on Nov. 20. “The whole purpose in seeking the automatic license plate reader was to obtain an advanced piece of technological equipment or tool that will help police officers in the field. The equipment saves time, improves efficiency and helps officers better protect residents.”
He added, “In my opinion, it can also be viewed as another way to help protect officers when they come across criminals. It is a real credit to the Florence Township Police Department that they were able to obtain the equipment through a grant.”
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“Nothing but praise for the police securing a grant that provided this service at no cost to the community,” Mayor Craig Wilkie told the Register-News on Nov. 19. “It is a welcome addition to the township.”
It was all was made possible with a grant from the Department of Homeland Security, according to Chief Scully.
“The grant was for $25,000, which included the ALPR, the four cameras that are mounted on the car and the computer that is mounted in the car,” Chief Scully said.
This new technology quickly picks up on information while passing by cars, saving time, and quickly processes information, saving the officers a lot of time.
According to Chief Scully, it can take “inventories” of parking lots, shopping center, motels and so on.
The technology allows the department to do many other things than just using it to find expired registration tags.
Chief Scully said the Police Department was involved in a serious investigation several weeks ago, which led to finding a female person who was reported missing for a few days in a surrounding municipality.
“Recently, we were able to locate a missing person as ýPage=007 Column=004 OK,0005.09þ
the agency that took the report entered a vehicle registration into this system that the missing person may have been traveling in,” Chief Scully said. “One of our officers, while on patrol, came across this vehicle and was able to have the missing person safely returned.”
The chief added, “Over the years, policing has changed drastically, and departments cannot do the job without staying with the times. I began my police career in 1985, and my first computer was a No. 2 pencil — the ‘business’ end of the ýPage=007 Column=005 OK,0000.00þ
pencil was the ‘print’ button, and the eraser was the ‘delete’ button, and formal reports were done on an IBM Selectric typewriter.
“In the world of policing today, computers are a must-
have item, not only in the station, but in the patrol cars. This new technology and its instant availability to our officers not only allows them to be more proficient at their jobs, but it provides another level of safety as this technology also has the capability of forewarning patrols of potentially dangerous suspects and situations.”
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