WELLINGTON INSTALLING LICENSE-TAG READERS
Wellington saw an increase in stolen cars and break-ins in 2017.
With the number of stolen vehicles on the rise, Wellington could become the latest municipality in Palm Beach County to employ a license-plate reading system to help curb crime.
The village is working with the Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office to install cameras for the system at key intersections, Capt. Rolando Silva, commander of PBSO’s District 8 in Wellington, told the village council at its recent meeting.
The system will cost about $300,000 that officials plan to take from Wellington’s Federal Forfeiture Law Enforcement Trust Fund, PBSO spokeswoman Teri Barbera said.
Wellington’s crime rate was up slightly last year due in large part to an increase in stolen cars and vehicle break-ins, according to the latest PBSO crime report. The number of vehicles stolen in Wellington went up 20 percent from 74 in 2016 to 113 last year, and car break-ins rose from 295 in 2016 to 337 last year, the report shows.
Silva said the license-plate reading system is part of a larger effort by his team to stem vehicle crime in Wellington. “That’s just one example of a resource that we’re looking forward to and having you guys support,” he told the council’s April 24 meeting.
The cameras residents could see perched throughout the village by the end of the year aren’t “the traditional security cameras that we’re all familiar with,” assistant village manager Jim Barnes said. “It’s a system more than a camera.”
PBSO is working countywide, including in Lake Worth, to determine where the cameras can be used, Barnes said. Other municipalities already have the system in place, including Palm Beach, Boynton Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, Manalapan, North Palm Beach and Delray Beach. Boca Raton has a system that uses cameras mounted on police cruisers to scan license plates.
Law enforcement officials have
seen some success with sim- ilar systems to what Wellington is pursuing. In Palm Be a ch G ard e ns in 2 0 16, police officers arrested a man after a license-plate reader set up on a trailer at the intersection of PGA and RCA boulevards alerted authorities to a stolen Mase- rati.
Barnes said Wellington’s system would be similar in that deputies would receive a notification whenever a flagged license plate — a tag that has been reported stolen, for example — is spot- ted by one of the cameras.
The next step is for village staff to sit down with PBSO to select which intersections would be best for the program. Then the village council will need to approve the plan, which would be opened up for bids from contractors.
It could be several months before the cameras go up, Barnes said.