Steven, I wanted to update you on our ALPR success story. We had an
armed robbery Sunday night August 16, 2009 in the county. I had just
ridden by the business probably one or two minutes before the call went
out. I remembered some of the vehicles but not all. I, of course,
responded to the scene. When I arrived, myself and other deputies
cleared the building. I went back to my car to see what the ALPR may
have captured. The system had captured a number of tags around the time
of the robbery in very close proximity. We started checking
registration on the tags and found one that was quite out of place. I
turned over all the tag numbers to the investigator and went about my
business. The next night I spotted one of the tags on the other side of
town. I stopped the vehicle and talked to the driver who lied and
denied being near the scene. When I told him about the ALPR (or E.T. as
the cameras are affectionately known in the department) and that I had
pictures of his vehicle near the scene, he admitted he had been there.
He said he was on the way home from a restaurant that is nowhere near
the robbery. He went on to say he knew about the robbery because his
cousin was the clerk who got robbed, Hmm? Needless to say,
investigators followed up on this and finally got a confession from
this driver and the clerk, who are roommates, and had set-up the whole
thing. So, I wanted to let you know the system, and one of its many
capabilities scored a good lick in middle Georgia. I was impressed with
what we accomplished in a short period of time on scene based on the
captures. As the investigator told me "tell your system thanks, it
provided the lead". So, I say to you "thanks."
