License Plate Reader Installation Begins Throughout Ramapo

M.C. Millman

The Town of Ramapo is working on installing license plate readers at various main intersections throughout Ramapo. 

The license plate readers (LPR) will provide additional safety for the community by allowing the police department to follow and track suspicious vehicles as needed. 

"The Town is installing License Plate Readers as part of our initiative to keep our residents safe," Town of Ramapo Supervisor Michael Specht shares with Rockland Daily. "The LPRs will allow us to quickly identify and investigate persons involved in serious crimes and dangerous incidents and will lead to swifter apprehension of those who enter our neighborhoods to harm and prey upon our residents. We hope word gets out to any potential criminal that their actions in our Town will not go unwitnessed, and this will deter them from committing crimes here. LPRs have proven to be a valuable tool for public safety in other jurisdictions, and our residents deserve the same level of security.

Along with the new LED smart streetlights we are installing, LPRs will make our streets safer for our community."

"The Town of Ramapo began the planning stages for this project in 2020," Lieutenant Blaine Howell, Town of Ramapo ​Special Operations Unit, tells Rockland Daily, "and we anticipate it will be complete in the second half of this year."

Upon completion of the project, the Town expects to have installed one hundred cameras, providing coverage throughout the Town of Ramapo.

The cameras are essentially motion-activated cameras that take a snapshot of a vehicle and its license plate as they pass the camera. The photo can be used for future identification purposes, if necessary, much like EZ Pass. 

"The cameras are not a tool for enforcing Vehicle and Traffic Law," the Lieutenant elucidates,  "nor are they an instrument to record the daily activities of the law-abiding citizen. They are a criminal investigative tool used in the investigation of serious crimes.

"When these types of incidents unfortunately occur, a quick review of the data by our investigators can tell us who was in the area at the time of the crime, to narrow a search of suspects, and shorten the time of the investigation by countless hours or even days.

"Further, if a victim or witness can provide a license plate immediately subsequent to the crime, that plate can be searched or entered into the system and potentially provide live-time locations, which would assist officers in making an immediate apprehension and limiting the danger to the public."