By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
Parsons Police Department’s new License Plate Reader camera is beginning to yield results for the area, Parsons Police Chief Kevin Keplinger said. Since installation, the new camera has captured the 36,000 license plates in 14 days and assisted in a stolen vehicle case.
The camera is installed looking up First Street, Keplinger said and captures the license plates of both private and commercial vehicles. “We are looking up First Street,” Keplinger said. “So we are capturing all the vehicles that are going up First Street to the traffic light.”
Out of State vehicles with front plates are captured by the camera going the opposite direction, Keplinger said. “We’re capturing any vehicle coming down First Street that’s an out of State vehicle if they have front license plates or commercial motor vehicles,” Keplinger said. “We are getting all traffic going South on 219 or First Street, we’re getting out of State vehicles or vehicles with front plates coming up.”
The camera has spotted 36,000 vehicles in 14 days just after installation, according to Keplinger. “I was surprised by that, honest I was,” Keplinger said.
The camera has also assisted in the investigation of a stolen vehicle, Keplinger said. “In the last 14 days, we had a stolen vehicle complaint,” Keplinger said. “We were able to use this camera to provide information to the State Police to dramatically help their investigation.”
The camera is designed to relay information directly to officers, whether that be to their cellphones, the office or to the 911 Center, Keplinger said. “It will relay to our phones. It relays to the office. 911 is also monitoring it,” Keplinger said. “So it is running in the background at 911. If something comes through that alerts, 911 will be able to reach out and let any officer near know.”
Keplinger said his Department would also be receiving “Hot List” access through the State that would allow the camera access to a database of flagged license plates such as stolen vehicles. “That way we will be monitoring for any tags that are stolen, stolen vehicles, anything like that, we will be picking that up,” Keplinger said.
The current camera is a 90 day loaner that Keplinger said he is confident could be extended, if needed. “We have a 90 demonstrator on that and hopefully, we can extend that if we need to,” Keplinger said.
The City’s cameras are funded through a Congressional Earmark that has been held up, but Keplinger said that with the passage of the Federal budget, he feels confident the funding will soon be released. “With the move on the Federal budget, I’m hoping that our funding will come through and we will be able to install,” Keplinger said.
Keplinger said he plans for an initial three cameras, followed by three more and then expand to have cameras along the new Corridor H when it is completed. “My plan initially was for three cameras,” Keplinger said. “If we are able to do that, I would like to extend it to maybe three more and then maybe additionally in a few years maybe go out over the Corridor and maybe start to monitor some of that traffic, as well.”
There is misunderstanding in the community about the camera, Keplinger said. According to Keplinger, many people think it is a speed camera. The camera does not track speed, only the plate on the car, he said. “I think there is some misunderstanding about these cameras,” Keplinger said. “They are not speed cameras. They don’t record speed. They don’t even record whether the tag actually belongs on the vehicle itself. All they are is capturing that tag.”
Keplinger said that if a plate seems suspect, officers can investigate. “What it does do if we think somebody is cold plating a vehicle, we could punch it in and if that same tag shows up on three different vehicles in the space of a day, we know something is going on.”
“Its a great tool. It really is. I’ve been pretty pleased with it,” Keplinger said.
