Crime & Safety
Novato Police Use License Plate Reader System to Find Stolen Car
Police in Novato have license plate detectors installed on several of the department's patrol cars.
By Bay City News Service:
The Novato Police Department is crediting a patrol cruiser equipped with license plate reading technology for discovering a car reported stolen from Oakland on Saturday.
At 6:35 p.m. Saturday, a Novato police officer patrolling the area of Leafwood Drive and Rowland Boulevard just west of U.S. Highway 101 used the car's Automated License Plate Reader on a parked 1993 Acura, police said.
The reader scanned the license plate on the Acura and from its database discovered that the car had been stolen within the city limits of Oakland, according to police.
Police in Novato have license plate detectors installed on several of the department's patrol cars. The plate reader system, with infrared cameras using optical character recognition, can recognize the plates of vehicles entered into the system's database during police investigations, police said.
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