By Joe Killian, Staff Writer
News & Record
Greensboro, NC- Greensboro resident Tracy Tillman recently let her car’s registration lapse. For three months.
“I was really lucky I didn’t get pulled over,” said Tillman, 26 . “I’m not a bad driver, so I didn’t expect to get pulled over. But if I did it would have been a big ticket.”
Fast Forward talked this week with the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office about a new technology that could end the lucky streak for drivers such as Tillman. It’s an in-car device that can help officers read and process license plates almost instantaneously.
The plate numbers can be run through a number of data-bases, finding those drivers who have mountains of unpaid parking tickets, lapsed registration or even stolen plates.
“Last month, we did a trial run of the equipment and it worked beautifully,” said Col. Randy Powers, of the sheriff’s office. “We’re not ready to buy it this year, but it’s something we could definitely be interested in for the future.”
Powers said the office had some problems with its own database, but saw a lot of promise in the new system.
“It really is a great technology,” Powers said. “You can set it up at a roadblock or a checkpoint, like when we do drunk driving blocks, and read every tag that goes in and out.”
Its primary use would be for major infractions - wanted persons, stolen cars, to aid in Amber Alerts. But Powers said his and other North Carolina agencies could end up using the technology as those in other states have: to collect a small fortune in unpaid parking fines and vehicle taxes and keep those with lapsed registrations off the roads.
Powers cited two obstacles to getting the devices onto the streets - money and organization. If the database issues can be cleared up and the funding obtained, he said this sort of license plate scanning would be a great new tool for law enforcement.
Not everyone agrees.
“It just seems like a freaky future thing that’s too aggressive,” said Mark Tanner, 42, of Jamestown. “Do we really need computers reading everybody’s license plates? It’s like the red light cameras. I just feel like it’s invasive.”
Enough drivers share Tanner’s sentiment that several companies are doing a brisk Internet business in helping people get around emerging traffic technology, from red light cameras to photo radar. One such company, Phantom Plate , charges $38 for “Photoblocker,” a spray-on product that promises to leave a plate visible to the naked eye but invisible to cameras and tracking technology.
The Guilford sheriff’s office said people who use such products will only end up with an additional fine.
“Anything that would keep an officer from identifying a plate would be illegal,” deputy Durand Dulin said. “Years ago people tried covering their tags with plastic wrap, and this is really the same thing.”
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