Jeannette police are getting a new tool in patrol units that can track the license plates of vehicles on the road around them.
Council on Thursday unanimously approved a $2,100 annual contract that will enable the license plate reader capabilities on the existing dashboard cameras in the seven police cars. That agreement will run for five years.
Police Chief Derek Manley recently spent a couple hours with a neighboring police agency outfitted with the in-car license plate readers and said he was amazed by the capabilities.
“I was blown away by it,” he said at a previous council meeting. “It’s another investigative tool. A good portion of the time … crimes are committed and people flee, usually in a vehicle.”
There are existing fixed license plate readers in Jeannette that can capture information on vehicles that pass by. Manley said police can get notifications through that system for wanted or stolen vehicles and missing people, but they’re limited by being stationary.
By adding the capabilities to the patrol units’ dash cameras, it makes the license plate readers mobile on Jeannette’s streets, Manley said.
“If these cars are avoiding the fixed cameras … they drive past a patrol car, it’s going to be captured on those cameras as well,” he said.
Officers will be able to receive notifications through the mobile system, too.
The cost will come out of the police department’s special equipment fund.