LPD To Get Another ALPR System Through Grant

alpr_vehicle_tlsThe Lakewood Police Department will soon be getting another ALPR (Automatic License Plate Recognition) system. The Township Committee in the near future will authorize the resolution awarding a technology company the $34,651.00 contract for the system, which will be installed in the near future, made possible through a grant.

The ALPR, (Automatic License Plate Recognition) vehicle enables the comparison of vehicle license plates against a nation-wide database of stolen vehicles and wanted persons. The system uses a combination of cameras, optical character recognition technology and computer processors to “read” license plates and alert the officer to the presence of an offenders’ vehicle. Within seconds, the dual color and infrared cameras capture the license plate image and compare it to the daily updated database. The officer is alerted with an audible tone and color picture of the vehicle marked with the date, time and GPS coordinates of the contact.

In December 2010, TLS reported about police arresting three men after they were caught sitting in a stolen vehicle. An officer patrolling the area of Dewey Street with his ALPR patrol car was alerted by the system after it recognized the stolen vehicle, which was stolen out of Jersey City. The vehicle was impounded.

In 2009, Police Chief Rob Lawson announced that the Lakewood Police Department was the first law enforcement agency in Ocean County to deploy an Automatic License Plate Recognition equipped patrol vehicle.

This system will be the second such system for the department. TLS.

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24 COMMENTS

  1. WASTE OF MONEY WHEN THE WE DONT HAVE THE SOFTWARE TO RUN PENNSYLVANIA LICENSE PLATES (thats were the problem is!!!)

    (Its no secret that illegals flock to PA, WA, NC/ to obtain a license & the proper paperwork to register a car, and then never go back to renew/re-register/re-insure the vehicles and then drive around hoping to never get stopped.)

  2. #5 I NEVER SAID THE SYSTEM CANT DO IT.
    IT NEEDS SOFTWARE THAT INCLUDES DRIVERS FOR THE CAMERA TO RECOGNIZE THE DIFFERENT LICENSE PLATES.
    (just like your computer can have an infinite amount of components & hardware installed, but each one needs the driver installed to recognize that hardware.)

    LAKEWOOD DOES NOT HAVE PA PLATE RECOGNITION SOFTWARE(as far as im informed since mid-winter). and thats a problem with the large amount of expired/unregistered/uninsured plates driving around. if officers had the capabilities to detect those plates, every other car would be towed, and it would impact a “certain” group of residents, and that could be deemed “racist” at the end of the year when statistics are produced, and one certain ethnicity would have a higher ticket rate, then others- the LPD would have questions from the ACLU. and no one wants that now do they? so they allow the fiasco to go on, and endanger YOUR LIFE & MINE.

  3. You keep asking where the money is coming from. It is a GRANT. And where does the grant money come from? The TAX PAYER. Therefore the taxpayers of Lakewood are paying for this “grant” stuff.

  4. Maybe the PD can train the rest of the patrol officers in the department to operate the 2 ALPR vehicles that are already in the fleet also.????

  5. this is not a waste of money this just makes the job easier for PD #3 is right the need the software in the cars computers to get the plate number and LPD dont have PA plates and who else the might not have othe states too the more states the hae the safier the town CAN BE but untill then nothing will change

  6. Don’t think for a moment that this is not a way for the police to run your plate and see if your registration is valid, or some other tactic to pull you over for no good reason. Its just another masked device of spying on us!

  7. There are several officers trained on the 2 vehicles in the fleet..The Grant is a Federal Grant. They need more of these units. There are 92k people in Lakewood. Only 2 officers at a time can operate the vehicles, having more units helps the PD spread out more.
    From what I know, and that isnt much the Units can read all plates, the get the information and verify if the plates are entered stolen, expired or if the driver has anything against them. It is a helping tool to keep our officers safe. I think that says enough right there

  8. IM ALL FOR THEM, i pay my insurance, and my registration is active, and i dont have warrants lol… and if my car gets stolen, ill sleep great knowing officers out there will find it faster.

    but what (moderated) me off, is that a certain ethnicity of people have out of state plates, and they are the ones that 90% of the time are uninsured, expired, invalid, unlicensed, etc. – AND NO SOFTWARE TO READ THOSE PLATES.
    is someone afraid of the statistics looking like targeting was at play, or is lakewood broke and cant afford the software to read PA plates- think about it.

  9. I thought the town has no money, why are buying something if we can’t afford to hire more people and we are always talking about laying off or cuting salaries. A grant, is this grant 100% or does the town have to contribute money towards it? I see and hear about alot of money being spent on grants let’s due the math and add up how much the town has spent in grants and is thinking about spending in grants. This money could have been put to better use.

  10. Wake up people. Having operated these cars in Lakewood I can tell you that the majority of plates that are expired are from RIGHT HERE IN LAKEWOOD and not PA.

  11. Anon, you have “spoken” to officers – well guess what, if your deemed an odd character, nosy, or found an officer who doesn’t want to divulge certain information, he wont tell you that his tool are limited, why, how, when- etc. Because that will open the door for 50 more nosy questions.

    Anon, your nothing more than a band-aider. your not entitled to more information then what HIPAA allows. Dont think because you act, and drive similar cars to law enforcement, that your automatically “part of the team.” You need to stop thinking your a law enforcement officer because you drive around in a neighborhood watch group.

    -and certainly dont think everything you are told by officers is 100% fact, true, and written in stone. Personally some people enjoy taking a nosy individual and feeding him skewed info 😉

  12. well said #22 the PD might everyones best friend when you callf or help and what not but they will never give a everyday person every bit of info they know about certain things such as this

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