Given how crime has dominated the news, including the race for Chicago mayor, you might feel like celebrating the rise of automated license plate readers, an increasingly popular security tool that can help deter wrongdoing and track down criminals.
These compact devices use high-resolution cameras to record vehicles, including those traveling near crime scenes. The state has rolled out the cameras along its busiest highways, with our support, in part to identify suspects in hard-to-solve expressway shootings. There are far more of these cameras in Chicago than many people realize and they can snag fleeing wrongdoers several miles away from where they committed their crimes.
An increasing number of suburbs (including Barrington, Barrington Hills and South Barrington), are installing vehicle-scanning equipment as well. One of the leading providers, surveillance company
Given how crime has dominated the news, including the race for Chicago mayor, you might feel like celebrating the rise of automated license plate readers, an increasingly popular security tool that can help deter wrongdoing and track down criminals.
These compact devices use high-resolution cameras to record vehicles, including those traveling near crime scenes. The state has rolled out the cameras along its busiest highways, with our support, in part to identify suspects in hard-to-solve expressway shootings. There are far more of these cameras in Chicago than many people realize and they can snag fleeing wrongdoers several miles away from where they committed their crimes.
An increasing number of suburbs (including Barrington, Barrington Hills and South Barrington), are installing vehicle-scanning equipment as well. One of the leading providers, surveillance company Flock Safety, says its customers include neighborhoods, businesses and law enforcement in 2,000-plus cities — and counting.
License plate readers evidently work as advertised. Last year, when Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill expanding their use on state highways beyond the Chicago area, Director Brendan Kelly of the Illinois State Police gave an enthusiastic thumbs-up: "Automated license plate readers play a growing, critical role in ISP investigations and arrests in the Chicagoland area," Kelly said. "ISP now routinely uses this technology to track down expressway shootings and carjacking suspects, so the expansion of this technology across Illinois expands our ability to protect our interstates and bring violent criminals to justice."
We are 100% in favor of bringing violent criminals to justice, and, as everyone knows, many crimes involve the use of vehicles. It's easy to imagine how collecting images and data from license plates could provide unbiased, objective evidence in a way that hasn't been possible up to now. These gadgets can help rescue kidnapped children, recover stolen cars and bust the gangs stealing catalytic converters, a costly auto part in high demand from scrap dealers.
But it's also easy to see how the devices could be abused.
Read more here.
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