MISSOURI & ILLINOIS – Whether it’s a domestic dispute or a stolen vehicle, license plate readers have solved hundreds of cases on roads and highways since being installed in Missouri and Illinois.

“We utilize the flock system almost on a daily basis,” said Monica Ruelas with the St. Ann Police Department.

Ruelas said they started utilizing the flock system three to four years ago and, since then, have solved homicides, robberies and kidnappings, with small things like plates and vehicle descriptions.

“We had a partial plate, and we also had a very distinct description,” Ruelas said. “The vehicle didn’t have the same color on the bumper for one of the robberies where we had a male subject who took a large sum of money from a victim.”

Across the Clark bridge — in Alton, Illinois–license plate readers became one of the first things Alton Police check in the majority of their cases.

​“Out of every random ten cases, eight of those are going to have some sort of relation to an LPR system,” said Lt. Andrew Pierson with Alton Police.

​Pierson said they have been using a similar plate reader system since 2017, helping the department solve cases quicker with over 70 cameras all over Alton, especially stolen cars crossing state lines.

“Before, it was an officer who just happened to be driving by and would see the license plate, run it on a computer or through the radio that they had and wait for the return to come back,” Pierson said. “The technology has really just been streamlined.”

Both departments said their cameras and databases only hold on to plates their cameras read for 30-90 days before being discarded.

“We do utilize it, and it does capture license plates and vehicles as they’re driving through the streets to help us solve crime. But we are under certain policies and restrictions where the only time we can utilize the system is for investigations,” Ruelas said.

Ruelas said that to obtain information through the flock system, they need to list a reason and case number to pull any pictures.