LPR Technology | MPH-900 | License Plate Reader

Just a few doors down, the Saint Paul Police Department has deployed a few pieces of futuristic high tech gadgetry to flag stolen vehicles. They are automatic license plate readers, which can snag tag numbers on moving vehicles using optical character recognition technology.

"It's an augmentation of the officer's visual ability to recognize a stolen car," Commander Kenneth Reed told KARE, "It speeds up the recovery time for these vehicles that are reported stolen."

The SPPD now is using three of the units, which go by the brand name of Mobile Plate Hunter 900 and can be switched from one police cruiser to another.

"The camera is looking at the license plates that come into the viewfinder," Reed explained, "It translates that plate information and compares it with the list of stolen vehicles."

The heavy lifting is done by a processor, in a laptop style display module inside the police car. Twice a day that onboard computer downloads a complete database of stolen car plate numbers.

In a matter of seconds the machine can match the plate it sees with a tab number on that list, and alert officers they're just passed a stolen vehicle or been passed by one. The officers will then double check the plate numbers with a dispatcher, before pulling over the car.

Reed said the technology could eventually help in Amber Alert situations, but so far has been helpful in spotting missing cars. The first plate hunter, tested in 2008, flagged 69 stolen vehicles. When the department added two more of the devices in 2009, they combined to snag 197 stolen cars and 8 stolen plates.