The Harrison County Board of Supervisors approved a bid process for solar and mobile license plate readers for the sheriff’s office on Monday night.
Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) have been around for more than a decade with subdivisions across Mississippi beginning to gravitate towards the use of the technology through homeowner associations.
According to Harrison County officials, ALPRs can serve as an important tool in a police department’s arsenal, helping agencies solve crimes more efficiently than ever before.
The technology captures images of a vehicle and compares its plates against “hotlists” that show an array of infractions in which it may be involved or reasons why it may be of interest to authorities. After an alert is issued, the officer can then investigate the license plate of interest and decide to take further action.
Not only can the system alert officers with this actionable information, but it can also provide photos of the car or truck in question. This technology shows more pictures of vehicles than any single officer possibly can, and the information generated may also be stored in databases, allowing investigators to potentially analyze this data for open investigations of serious crimes.
Every member of the board, exempting District 3 Supervisor Dr. Marlin Ladner who was representing Harrison County in Washington, D.C. on the Mississippi Sound Coalition for the Gulf Coast, voted in favor of the bid process for ALPRs.
