ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — The City of Rock Island may soon have an extra set of eyes on your license plate.
The Rock Island city council recently approved the installation of automated license plate reader systems. It will provide real-time detection and information on vehicles involved in crime, allowing police to respond and investigate. The cameras will be installed at entry points to the city.
"It's just one more tool for us," Rock Island Police Chief Richard Landi said.
This same system is currently in use by the cities of Milan, Silvis and East Moline. Flock Group, Inc., a public safety operating system is the sole provider of the cameras.
"The idea behind that is, let's say a stolen vehicle is coming into our city, we want to know as soon as possible that's entered the city so we can hopefully intercept the vehicle (and) hopefully get it stopped," Chief Landi said.
News 8 also spoke with Milan police chief Christopher Johnson, who said they've had the cameras for a few weeks as of Tuesday, Feb. 28. Johnson said the cameras are working.
"We have had a lot of alerts on stolen vehicles," Chief Johnson said.
"The officers can have the system up and running on their computers in their cars, they get alerts, usually within a minute," Chief Johnson said. "And then they can react to that if needed."
Back in Rock Island, the police department is using $120,950 over the course of two years, starting with installation costs, then service costs subsequently. Part of that money is from the American Rescue Plan Act.
"This is a force multiplier for us using technology to help supplement manpower," Chief Landi added.
The only step left until installation is the permits from the Illinois Dept. of Transportation. Chief Landi said they're hoping to have the cameras installed as early as two months.
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