Editor’s note: This article is part of ALPRs in Focus, a Police1 editorial series examining how agencies use automated license plate reader technology, the investigative value it can provide, and current concerns surrounding privacy, data access, retention and misuse.
A silver hatchback leaving a restaurant burglary. A gray Nissan spotted near a university campus. A red SUV driven by an endangered missing man.
In each case, automated license plate reader technology gave investigators a lead or helped officers narrow a search already underway.
ALPR systems capture license plate and vehicle information that agencies can compare against hotlists or search during an investigation. The technology has generated debate over privacy, data sharing and oversight. Police leaders, however, point to cases in which an alert or historical search helped officers locate suspects, recover firearms and bring missing people home.
Burglaries and organized retail theft
A vehicle captured near an Elk Grove Wingstop became the lead that helped investigators connect one restaurant break-in to 10 others across California, according to the Elk Grove Police Department.
The case began after a suspect smashed a window at the restaurant on March 27, 2023, cut open a safe with a reciprocating saw and fled with approximately $2,100. An ALPR camera near Laguna Springs photographed a silver hatchback leaving the area, and investigators found another image of the same vehicle taken earlier near Center Parkway and Bruceville Road.
Officers followed the vehicle lead and linked the suspect to similar burglaries, including break-ins at other Wingstop locations. Information developed during the investigation helped law enforcement locate and arrest the suspect in Fairfield and coordinate with agencies handling related cases.
Police said the suspect was ultimately tied to 11 burglaries in 10 counties. The suspect was convicted of burglary and sentenced to 40 months in prison for the Elk Grove break-in.
“It doesn’t replace good police work,” the department said of ALPR technology. “It gives our officers and detectives another investigative tool to help develop leads, connect crimes across jurisdictions, locate suspects, gather evidence, and build stronger cases.”
Three suspects were arrested after ALPRS helped investigators locate a vehicle connected to more than $190,000 in organized retail thefts at Ulta stores across several jurisdictions.
The suspects allegedly entered stores during business hours, stole high-end fragrances and fled before officers arrived, according to the Fairfax County Police Department. Investigators linked the group to thefts in Virginia and Maryland dating to summer 2024.
Detectives identified several stolen vehicles used during the thefts. On March 24, 2025, Fairfax County’s Auto Crimes Enforcement detectives worked with the department’s Real-Time Crime Center and ALPRs to identify the possible location of one of those vehicles.
The information was shared with the Anne Arundel County Police Department, which located the vehicle and took three suspects into custody. Police said additional agencies and retail loss-prevention investigators helped connect the individual thefts to the larger operation.
An ALPR search also helped Chula Vista police connect a wanted man to three theft-from-vehicle cases involving credit cards that were later used fraudulently.
Officers located the wanted vehicle using ALPR technology, according to an April 30 post from the Chula Vista Police Department. Police said the driver failed to stop and crashed before officers took him into custody.
Officers recovered methamphetamine and merchandise believed to have been purchased with stolen credit cards. Officers then used ALPR information to connect the suspect to the three local theft cases. Police said he was also linked to crimes outside Chula Vista.
Stolen vehicles and hit-and-run investigations
A stolen-vehicle alert led San Diego officers to a ghost gun hidden beneath the vehicle’s hood, according to the San Diego Police Department.
The camera detected the vehicle on University Avenue and alerted officers assigned to the department’s Mid-City Division. An officer located the vehicle and conducted a high-risk stop.
During a search, officers found an unregistered ghost gun and a high-capacity magazine concealed in the engine compartment, police said. The driver, whom the department identified as a convicted felon, was arrested on allegations that included illegal firearm possession and possession of controlled substances while armed.
An ALPR alert helped police recover an SUV approximately 150 miles from where it had been stolen in Parsons, Kansas.
The Chevrolet Traverse was stolen on April 4, 2025, and entered into the National Crime Information Center database, according to the Parsons Police Department.
Two days later, Parsons officers received an alert showing that the SUV had been detected in Wichita. They contacted the Wichita Police Department, which located and recovered the vehicle. It was later returned to its owner.
“This is a textbook example of how the [ALPR] system empowers small departments like ours to have eyes beyond city limits,” Parsons Police Chief Robert Spinks said.
Two teenagers were arrested and two handguns were recovered after an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officer used ALPR technology to locate a recently stolen vehicle.
Officers were searching near East 21st Street shortly after 2:30 p.m. on Sept. 8, 2026, when a criminal interdiction officer found the vehicle nearby, according to IMPD. Police said two males ran from the vehicle as officers approached and one was reportedly carrying a handgun.
Officers established a perimeter and deployed a drone and K-9. One suspect was arrested in a residential area. The second was found hiding in an overgrown area and was taken into custody after officers used less-lethal rounds when he did not follow their commands, police said.
Two 9mm handguns were recovered at the scene, one of which had been reported stolen. The teenagers were arrested on preliminary allegations of resisting law enforcement and unauthorized entry of a motor vehicle.
The case has been sent to the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office.
Homicides, robberies and other major investigations
Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper said an ALPR alert helped deputies quickly find a vehicle connected to a recent fatal shooting.
Witnesses provided a description of the suspect’s vehicle, which deputies entered into the system. The vehicle was then detected traveling on Highway 50.
“Seven minutes after the call came in, we got an [ALPR] hit on the suspect’s vehicle,” Cooper said. “It helped us solve the murder today.”
Cooper said his department does not have enough personnel to search every roadway for a wanted vehicle. He described ALPR technology as one investigative tool rather than a replacement for officers.
“I don’t have the resources or the manpower. We don’t have it,” Cooper said. “I care about catching bad guys, criminals. That’s our job.”
LPR data played a key role in identifying the gunman who killed two students and wounded nine others at Brown University on Dec. 13, 2025, according to a Police Executive Research Forum after-action assessment.
Investigators had developed information about a gray Nissan with Florida license plates that may have been connected to the shooter. A search of ALPR data narrowed an investigative pool of thousands of possible vehicles to two matches near the Brown campus within minutes, the report stated.
Officers did not treat either result as definitive. They compared the vehicles with surveillance footage and the reconstructed timeline of the shooter’s movements. One vehicle was ruled out because it could not have been near the crime scene at the relevant time. The other aligned with evidence from multiple sources.
Investigators traced the remaining vehicle to an Alamo rental location in Boston, where records and video helped identify the renter as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente. The FBI later concluded that Valente acted alone in the Brown shooting and in the fatal shooting of MIT professor Nuno Loureiro two days later. Valente was found dead in a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, on Dec. 18.
PERF called the LPR data “indispensable,” while emphasizing that investigators used the matches as leads and validated the information before acting. The organization recommended that Providence maintain its LPR systems and continue enforcing requirements for validation, audits and accountability.
An ALPR alert notified Whittier police on Aug. 22, 2026, that a vehicle wanted by the Los Angeles Police Department in connection with a robbery had entered the area, according to the Whittier Police Department.
Officers found the vehicle and conducted a high-risk traffic stop. The suspect was detained without incident and transferred to LAPD officers.
A man wanted on a South Carolina murder warrant was arrested in North Carolina after an ALPR camera detected an associated vehicle entering Boone.
Boone police and Watauga County sheriff’s deputies received the alert at about 1:55 p.m. on July 2, 2026, according to the Boone Police Department. Officers from the two agencies shared information in real time and found the wanted person at the Watauga County Recreation Center.
After confirming his identity, officers arrested 20-year-old Raimon St. John Campbell of Simpsonville, South Carolina. Police said Campbell was wanted by authorities in Greenville County, South Carolina, and was held without bond pending a court appearance.
“Public safety does not stop at city, county, or state lines,” Boone police said, “and this arrest shows how strong partnerships and effective technology help keep our community safe.”
In Los Alamos, New Mexico, an ALPR alert identified a vehicle associated with a wanted person in July 2026. Officers located the vehicle, arrested one person with an outstanding warrant and obtained a search warrant that led to the recovery of methamphetamine and methadone.
A second ALPR alert days later helped officers locate and arrest the vehicle’s driver, who was also wanted. The department reported three arrests connected to the investigation.
In Temple, Texas, officers used an ALPR in April 2026 to locate a vehicle associated with a suspect wanted in an investigation involving a juvenile runaway. Officers found the vehicle and suspect on Old Waco Road and took the suspect to the Bell County Jail.
Des Moines police said their ALPR system provided “critical evidence” in the 2025 investigation of a man accused of placing hidden cameras inside portable toilets at public events.
Police said the ALPR information helped investigators identify dozens of victims, including children. The investigation resulted in federal charges alleging that the suspect attempted to produce sexually explicit images of children at two school cross-country meets and an arts and crafts festival.
The Des Moines Police Department operates 130 ALPR cameras, including cameras installed on patrol vehicles and at two fixed locations. The Justice Department announced the federal indictment in December 2025.
Police said the ALPR evidence helped investigators identify dozens of victims. The investigation ultimately produced federal child-exploitation charges involving cameras placed at two school cross-country meets and an arts and crafts festival.
Gang investigations and firearm recoveries
Calls from residents about three masked people carrying spray paint led Santa Rosa officers to a gang-related vandalism investigation and the recovery of two loaded firearms from a children’s playground, police said.
Before officers arrived on Sept. 8, a community member provided a license plate number connected to a dark-colored sedan. An officer searched the Santa Rosa Police Department’s ALPR system and found several camera reads showing the vehicle traveling toward the neighborhood during the 25 minutes before the 911 calls.
Police said the data corroborated the description and photographs provided by residents and helped officers establish a perimeter. With assistance from a Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office helicopter, officers detained three suspects and stopped the vehicle as it left the area.
Officers found fresh graffiti painted over a rival gang’s markings. During a follow-up search near the playground where two suspects had been detained, a K-9 officer found two loaded guns partially buried in the sand: a 9mm handgun with a round in the chamber and an unserialized firearm equipped with a magazine capable of holding 30 rounds.
Police arrested two 18-year-olds and a 16-year-old on felony allegations that included vandalism and gang-related offenses. Two of the suspects also faced firearms charges.
“License plate recognition technology did exactly what it is intended to do in this case,” Chief John Cregan said. “It provided officers with verified, objective information about a specific vehicle before they arrived on scene and helped connect that vehicle to what community members were reporting in real time.”
Cregan also credited the residents who called police.
“Community members made these arrests possible by calling us,” he said. “Technology helped us act on the information they provided, and the result was two loaded firearms removed from a park where children play.”
Missing and endangered people
An ALPR alert helped New Mexico State Police find a missing 15-year-old girl and arrest the man accused of abducting her.
At about 7:46 p.m. on Aug. 22, 2025, troopers received an alert for a Volkswagen traveling west on Interstate 10. The vehicle had been connected to the disappearance of a teenager from Texas, according to the New Mexico Department of Public Safety.
Troopers found the Volkswagen near Deming. Police said the driver crossed the median and opposing lanes before crashing into a water-filled ditch as officers attempted to stop him.
The teenager was found outside the vehicle and later placed in the care of the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department, which notified her parents. The driver was arrested on allegations that included kidnapping, child abuse, aggravated fleeing and witness intimidation.
An ALPR alert helped King George County deputies find a missing 79-year-old man with dementia and reunite him with his family, the Virginia agency said.
The alert identified a vehicle associated with the missing man’s license plate. Deputies Tully and Houlihan began searching for the vehicle, and Houlihan found it at a CVS in King George. She checked the driver’s condition before he was reunited with his loved ones.
The sheriff’s office credited both the technology and the deputies’ response for the safe outcome.
An 82-year-old man reported missing in Peoria, Arizona, was found safely within approximately 2 and a half hours, according to an update from the Peoria Police Department.
Police had asked the public to help find Joseph F. Brezina after he was last seen driving away from the area of 91st Avenue and Watson Lane. The department said Brezina was considered endangered because of mental health and medical conditions that could affect his ability to recognize danger or return home without assistance. He also did not have a cellphone with him.
“Thanks to ALPR technology, Joseph was located safely within approximately 2½ hours of being reported missing,” the department said in its update. “The technology played a critical role in quickly locating Joseph and likely helped prevent what could have been a much more serious outcome.”
A missing-person investigation in southeastern Massachusetts expanded into a nighttime search involving K-9 teams, drones, aircraft and officers from local, state and federal agencies.
The Rochester Police Department said its officers used license plate reader information, along with traditional investigative methods, to locate Thomas Janicki’s vehicle and develop leads about his whereabouts.
As evidence pointed searchers toward Nasketucket State Park in Mattapoisett, agencies deployed ground teams, K-9s, drones, utility vehicles and the Massachusetts State Police Air Wing. A group of regional K-9 officers found Janicki at about 10:17 a.m. He was evaluated at the scene and taken to a hospital by paramedics.
Rochester Police Chief Michael Assad said the case showed how technology and traditional police work can complement each other.
“When agencies work together, communicate effectively, and utilize both modern technology and time-tested investigative techniques, lives can be saved,” Assad said.
Policies, safeguards and other ALPR uses
Brunswick County Sheriff Brian Chism recently addressed both the investigative uses of ALPR technology and concerns about constitutional protections, accountability and public trust.
In a video shared by the North Carolina sheriff’s office, Chism outlined cases in which ALPR information helped deputies seize nearly four ounces of methamphetamine and make three trafficking arrests; locate an armed robbery and kidnapping suspect and get the victim to safety; and track a stolen vehicle tied to homicide and shooting investigations.
The sheriff’s office said the technology can also help locate missing children, older adults with cognitive impairments and other vulnerable people. It emphasized that ALPR data is an investigative resource, not a replacement for deputies or traditional police work.
Chism said the agency uses policies, audits and other safeguards to limit the technology to legitimate law enforcement purposes and hold personnel accountable for misuse.
“When it’s someone you love, every minute matters,” the sheriff’s office said.
