FORT WAYNE, Ind. — Fort Wayne Police Chief Rusty York said his department is getting automatic license plate readers that will help police find stolen vehicles and could help in serious crimes like homicides.
The Journal Gazette reports the department is using a $56,000 government grant to equip two cars with four cameras, allowing license plates to be read from all sides of the vehicle. These readers store information and then crosscheck it against a database of stolen vehicles.
But York said if homicide witnesses remember the license plate number, police could theoretically comb through data collected by the readers to see if that car was spotted at any other place on another day.
The American Civil Liberties Union questioned whether police will use the readers to track law-abiding citizens.
