The Michigan State Police is using new technology along I-94 and I-75 to watch for cars that law enforcement officers are tracking. The devices can automatically read license plates of passing vehicles.
Lieutenant Rene Gonzalez is a spokesperson for the Michigan State Police. He says the readers send that information to a database.
“If it's a plate that's been entered as something that is maybe a wanted vehicle, been involved in a crime, maybe a domestic violence or a missing person, there's an automatic alert that is sent to the dispatch center that that camera is hooked up to," he said.
The technology is made up of an infrared camera that can capture images of license plates on all moving vehicles on a stretch of road. The camera is placed on an eight-foot pole along the east and westbound lanes of the highways, according to Gonzalez.
"They're in an area where they're not going to be obstructed by street signs or other signs that are going to keep them from doing our work properly," he explained.
Gonzalez says the database can store license plate data for up to 30 days but cannot be used to search for warrants.
"If we have an investigation where maybe that plate comes up in a crime or something like that we can go back and see where that vehicle has been, however the system will not notify us if there's an owner of a vehicle that has warrants. That's not what the system is being used for," Gonzalez said.
He says in the past five months, 90% of the plates that the devices have alerted authorities about have led to arrests.