Supervisor Don Knabe, Chairman of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, announced that two Sheriff’s vehicles have been equipped with a new license plate recognition system that can automatically detect wanted vehicles. The vehicles are now deployed in the unincorporated areas of South and East Whittier.

The new technology known as Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR) transforms how law enforcement personnel search for wanted vehicles by automating the task. Sheriff’s deputies currently have to manually type in a license plate and request a database search, which can be a time-consuming process. A vehicle equipped with the ALPR system has a mobile computer and multiple cameras that can capture all license plates within the cameras’ field of view. The process is entirely automatic and doesn’t require any action on the part of the deputy. Up to 1,000 license plates can be read and recorded hourly.

The two ALPR vehicles will be deployed 24 hours a day, and 7 days a week on all shifts. Each deputy that works the unincorporated Whittier area went through 2 hours of training on how to operate the system. Each ALPR unit cost $32,600, and was funded with a Federal Juvenile Crime Prevention Grant.