Chief: more license plate readers needed in Clinton to fill “hole”

By Randy Bell

As Clinton police look for more ways to help keep Clinton a safe community, Chief Ford Hayman asked for and received Board of Aldermen approval to spend just over $8,000 to lease three more automatic license plate recognition units (ALPRs).

Hayman told the Board October 6, “We have used LPR technology throughout the city for a number of years to help us to investigate crimes and to stop criminal trends before they can really grow large.”

But the chief said more cameras are needed.

“We have identified another spot, a hole in our net, if you will.”

Hayman said the additional ALPRs will help to lock down that site.

“I think it gives us a little bit better closure around the city,” he said.

He’s applied for reimbursement funds from the state’s Wireless Assessment Program administered by the Department of Public Safety. In his letter requesting the funds, the chief wrote that, “We believe the ability to wirelessly and quickly share this data will allow for more effective policing when searching for and attempting to identify suspects.”

The misuse of tag reader technology in some law enforcement jurisdictions has prompted privacy concerns, but Hayman said the cameras being used in Clinton are not the ones produced by Flock Safety, which have been the focal point of the controversy.

Instead, CPD is working with Insight LPR to install more of its automatic license plate recognition units.

“We don’t incorporate Flocks in our program,” the chief said. “Ours is strictly a read-only basis and 99.9 per cent of the tags, we never look at.”