By Jeff Goldman
nj.com
TRENTON, N.J. — Nearly three dozen police departments and other law enforcement agencies will split a $10 million grant to purchase or expand on their automated license plate recognition technology in a continuing quest to combat auto theft, officials said.
The state Office of the Attorney General made the announcement Friday, saying car theft dropped 16% from September 2022 through March in part due to help automated license plate readers provide police. It wasn’t immediately clear if that dip was compared to six months before it or a different time frame.
The State Police’s Uniform Crime Reporting database hasn’t been updated since early 2021.
The high-speed automated camera networks capture and store computer-readable images of license plates in a centralized data base accessible to law enforcement.
“This information assists law enforcement in identifying, locating, and recovering stolen vehicles; interrupting auto theft networks; and apprehending individuals involved in vehicle theft and other violent crimes,” the attorney general’s office said in its statement
State Police will receive the largest grant — $3,014,329.00 — though at least one agency in all 21 counties received funding.
The American Civil Liberties Union has for years expressed concern about how the information collected by police would be used.
Police have been permitted to manually “run the plates” since a 1998 state Supreme Court ruling in State v. Donis, the attorney general’s office said previously. But those manual searches are much slower than the automatic program, which can scan and check on hundreds of plates per minute, experts say.
ATLANTIC
- Brigantine: $31,842
- Galloway: $60,325
BERGEN
- Bergen County Sheriff’s Office: $400,368
- Wallington: $86,400
BURLINGTON
- Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office: $200,000
- Burlington Township: $60,212
- Willingboro: $144,000
CAMDEN
- Camden County Police Department: $220,087
CAPE MAY
- Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office: $389,527
CUMBERLAND
- Cumberland County: $402,039
ESSEX
- Bloomfield: $226,065
- Newark: $595,000
- Nutley: $91,666
- West Orange: $63,513
GLOUCESTER
- Glassboro: $23,400
- Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office: $349,856
- Paulsboro: $87,541
HUDSON
- Union City: $222,000
- West New York: $125,380
HUNTERDON
- County of Hunterdon: $184,200
MERCER
- Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office: $396,000
MIDDLESEX
- East Brunswick: $88,777
MONMOUTH
- Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office: $325,920
MORRIS
- Chatham: $69,194
- Long Hill: $72,000
- Morris County Prosecutor’s Office: $372,000
- Dover: $48,000
OCEAN
- County of Ocean: $346,758
PASSAIC
- Passaic (city): $148,253
SALEM
- Salem County Prosecutor’s Office: $352,000
SOMERSET
- Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office: $102,858
SUSSEX
- Sparta: $68,800
UNION
- Union County Police Department: $250,500
WARREN
- Greenwich: $131,190
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