[Scan-DC] VSP video cameras on car

[Kenneth Fowler]

Virginia has started to use plate readers.  It will scan plates for
DMW expires and if vehicles are wanted.

On Mon, Mar 23, 2009 at 11:05 PM, Andrew Clegg <w4jecom at w4je.com> wrote:
> Yesterday afternoon while driving back to town on I-66, I spotted a Virginia
> State Police car with what looked like two security cameras mounted on the
> roof. The car was "unmarked," but with flashing lights in the front and back
> windows, several antennas, and a uniformed VSP officer driving it. The car
> was patrolling the construction zone out near exit 43 (the last exit for Rt
> 29), where they are adding lanes.
>
> The cameras looked like commercial video surveillance cameras (about the
> length of a shoebox and maybe half the cross-section), were mounted on the
> top of the roof roughly over the driver's and passenger's seats, and each
> was pointed out at an angle of about 45 deg to either side of the car.
>
> This was the first time I had seen anything like it. A Google search pulled
> up a news article on an Australian (!) security company's site
> (http://www.footprintsecurity.com.au/z_art_080802_Cruiser-Top_Cameras_Make_Police_Snap.php),
> showing something like this being used in Maryland, which catches
> infractions as minor as failed emissions tests. The article also mentions
> that Virginia is using them, but the embedded link is broken.
>
> I wonder if the license plate database is installed on the trooper's laptop,
> or whether it has to radio the data back and forth to HQ?
>
> The VSP trooper on I-66 passed me, and I guess I was clean!
>
> Andy
>
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-- 
Kenneth Fowler
KD4IIW/WQGQ466
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