New License Plate Scanners in Orange, CT

Police in Orange now have access to the latest in high tech vehicle plate scanning technology. According to this new report from the New Haven Register, the system developed by Vigilant Video automatically scans vehicle license plates, and matches them with data from from DMV records, police databases, and amber alerts.
The targets for these scans are stolen vehicles, cars with expired auto insurance or registrations, and driver's with licenses under suspension, or outstanding criminal warrants.
Are there concerns about privacy, civil liberties, and big brother here? You bet!
But it is important for everyone to know that is is happening now, regardless of whether or not you are for it, or think it is a good idea for the government to have this kind of extensive citizen tracking information at it's fingertips.
The fact is, with this technology becoming more commonplace every day, it is dangerous and foolish to expect to get away with driving on a suspended license.

More CT License Plate Scanners

Automatic license plate scanning technology is now in use by police in Clinton, CT. As we've previously noted, these systems are rolled out in New Haven, and are rapidly expanding to other communities and law enforcement agencies in Connecticut and nationwide.

These computer scanning systems track and identify huge numbers of license plates on vehicles, whether parked or moving. By photographing and scanning the tag number, and matching them to on-board databases, police can quickly identify stolen vehicles in a huge parking lot.

Other common uses of these systems are identifying cars who's owners may have unpaid traffic tickets, or owe municipal back taxes. When matched with court, DMV, and law enforcement records, they can also flag cars owned by individuals with suspended driver's licenses, lapsed auto insurance, outstanding criminal warrants, and more.

And it all happens absolutely passively, and constantly, while a police vehicle is driving down the street, through a parking lot, or sitting at the side of the highway. There is no doubt that these systems are huge labor and time saving devices, and can make efficient use of a police officer's shift.

But some people question what happens with all this data. Is it right that, just because you drove down the highway, or parked at a shopping mall, your presence there was scanned, and logged in a government database with GPS positioning, date and time? It is easy to envision a future where the police can track your past movements by looking up any past hits on your license plate - even though you have done nothing wrong - and aren't even suspected of doing anything illegal.

That's a large question to ask, and the civil liberties concerns are real, and deserve to be debated. But the immediate issue is that no one should believe that they can easily get away with stealing a car, driving on a suspended license, or avoiding a warrant after a failure to appear in court. It is only going to get tougher for you to hide from these problems.
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If you are arrested and charged with a crime in Connecticut, please contact our defense attorneys for a free case evaluation and legal consultation.

Story on License Plate Scanners

This story was on NECN (see video) about license plate scanning technology being used in New Haven police vehicles. The technology consists of a video scanner that can passively read thousands of license plates per hour, when a police vehicle is either moving or parked by the side of the road. The license plate scans are matched to a database from the Connecticut DMV, and if any passing car has been flagged by the DMV with any known issue, the police officer is instantly alerted, and will pull over your vehicle.

The news story is specifically about tax delinquency, but this technology is also used to catch anyone with an outstanding arrest warrant, suspended driver's license, expired inspection or insurance, and any other minor traffic matter in Connecticut. Other uses can include known stolen vehicles or amber alerts.

If you've been pulled over, charged, arrested, or given a citation for any such matter, please contact our Connecticut defense attorneys for a consultation and case evaluation on your best options to defend yourself in court.

Police License Plate Scanning Technology

Police are increasingly using automatic license plate scanning technology to run checks on every car they see. In this article, New Haven has been using it to locate stolen cars and those who owe back taxes.

But this technology is readily adaptable for any kind of database search or background check. A police cruiser equipped with the ability to scan 500 license plates an hour can instantly identify people with suspended licenses, outstanding warrants for failure to appear, and any number of applications.