Wyoming Public Safety sees success in fighting crime with their latest tool. Recently, the city put up several license plate readers at busy intersections.
Police say there's a need as the number of car thefts is increasing.
Wyoming Police say they made an arrest of two teenagers in a stolen car with a gun because of this system.
They say these cameras have made a difference in solving several cases.
"So there are cameras that we had installed by the end of February, beginning of March, there are a fixed license plate reader camera," Captain Eric Wiler told FOX 17.
These cameras are like a new eye in the sky.
"They're not mounted on a patrol car or anything like that, as cars pass the camera, it takes a picture of the license plate, then compares that picture to a database to see if the vehicle is stolen," Wiler said.
In December, the city moved to use $30,000 of the American Rescue Plan funds to put 12 of these cameras up throughout the city.
"We've looked at our crime mapping, and where we've had, you know, significant amounts of crime, we put them in those areas," Wiler added.
Wiler explained this system has aided in 19 arrests and the recovery of 13 stolen vehicles.
The latest numbers of stolen vehicles from the police department show in 2020, there were 297, in 2021, there were 348, and this year, there are 159 reports.
"Do you think we're going to pass that 2021 number?" FOX 17 asked.
"It's possible the way things are going right now? Obviously, I don't know," Wiler said. "You know, there's obviously been a huge spike the last several months was stolen vehicles. And if that continues, there's a good possibility we might."
The company Wyoming Police is using to fight vehicle theft is Flock Safety. The company says 30 police departments in Michigan are using its system. They say privacy is paramount.
"So we have very strict data privacy and data security protocols. So, things like the customer actually owns the data. So, in this case, Wyoming Police Department owns all of their own data. We don't own it. What that means is we can never sell it, and we can never share it with any third parties," Flock Safety Head Public Relations Holly Beilin told FOX 17.
Wiler says these cameras take pictures of license plates only. Those pictures stay in the system for 30 days, unless there is an open. Once there's an alert, an officer responds.
"They still have to get behind the car, verify the plate, and ensure that yes, this is a stolen car or a stolen plate, or somebody who's wanted and that everything is correct before making the stop," Wiler said.
Wiler says the system has done more than fight crime. He says they were able to find a person who has dementia that had gone missing.
