Chief Cumming provides license-camera snapshot

In an eight-hour shift, a Longboat Key dispatcher reviews an average of 108 hits generated by the license plate recognition cameras on each end of the island.

The camera system went live in August and runs license plate numbers through local, state and federal databases and notifies the dispatcher if there’s a hit — that is, if the registered owner of a vehicle had an arrest warrant, suspended or expired driver’s license or expired tag, or that the tag came from a stolen vehicle. The system also notifies dispatch if authorities are seeking someone in relation to a Silver or Amber Alert or if the license plate comes back belonging to a registered sexual offender.

The number of hits means that police have to prioritize whether to pursue a driver with an expired tag instead of going after a warrant or suspended license, Longboat Key Police Chief Pete Cumming told the Longboat Key Town Commission Tuesday at its regular workshop.

In a memo he submitted to the commission before the meeting, Cumming explained the process.
After the system produces an alert, the dispatcher confirms that the alert matches the actual license plate and verifies the direction of travel.

“The human element comes in,” Cumming said, noting that the dispatcher must verify that an “I” is not a “1” before police initiate a stop, for example.

“After authenticating the alert, the dispatcher will notify the patrol officer with a license plate, make, model, color, and direction of travel and will simultaneously confirm the identity of the registered owner through the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), obtaining the name, age, and address along with a digital photographic image. This critical information is being radioed to the officer during the search for the violator,” the memo states.

Between the second week in August, when the cameras began snapping, and Dec. 31, more than half of traffic stops police made — 197 out of 381 — were generated by the cameras.

Still, police never see the vast majority of data the cameras capture. Images of license plates — but not vehicles or drivers — are captured, but police only see them when they become part of an investigation. The images are stored in a database for a year and are treated as criminal evidence.

Commissioner Phill Younger suggested the cameras could have another use. “We could actually mine this database to determine what the traffic flow on the island is,” he said.

The town has until 2015 to decide whether to accept an offer from Sarasota County to take over Longboat Key’s 911 dispatch services.

Cumming said he’s still trying to determine what issues centralized dispatch would present for the camera system.

The Longboat Key system is unique among the camera systems law enforcement agencies throughout the region use in that it’s the only one that’s stationary. License-camera systems that other agencies utilize are mobile, meaning that officers physically scan plates while on patrol.

Patrol activity
The following traffic incident stops were generated by the Automatic License Recognition System (ALRS) between mid-August and Dec. 31. (Note: The total number of stops adds up to 197, but some stops generated multiple forms of action.)

82 — Verbal warnings issued
64 — Citations (with fines)
50 — Written warnings issued
10 — Citations (misdemeanors)
4 — Recovered stolen tags
4 — Warrants
3 — Recovered stolen vehicles
1 — Narcotics

Contact Robin Hartill at [email protected]