Police use plate reader

Equipment to help keep track of car registrations, reports of vehicle thefts

LOWER SALFORD >> With the state no longer issuing license plate registration stickers, Lower Salford Township Board of Supervisors member Phil Heilman asked at the board’s Feb. 28 morning work session how police officers will be able to tell if vehicles are registered.

Officers can manually check through computers in the police cars, police Chief Thomas Medwid said, but most of the checking is done with automatic license plate readers.

“We have one that was given to us by the county through a grant,” Medwid said.

The license plate reader has

three cameras, two facing forward and one backward, so vehicles going in both directions on the road are automatically checked, he said.

The license plate readers pick up things such as stolen vehicles, expired registrations and wanted vehicles, he said.

Although Lower Salford’s is attached to one of the patrol cars and mobile, some towns have mounted automatic license plate readers on poles in specific locations, he said.

In answer to a question if all the state’s police departments have the license plate readers, Medwid said no.

“It’s gonna take a long time because they’re expensive,” he said. “The county got them with grants. They offered to install it in one of our vehicles.”

The state stopped issuing the license plate registration stickers the beginning of this year.

“It appears to be cost cutting, but their argument was that there was some redundancy in the system because to get your vehicle inspected it has to be registered. It has to be current on registration,” Medwid said.

Inspection stickers, which are on the windshield, continue to be issued. In order to have the vehicle inspected, the owner must show the service station doing the inspection a current registration and proof of insurance.