LINCOLN–(KFOR Nov. 1)–A new piece of technology will now be used by Lincoln Police, following a seven-month trial run with advanced license plate readers.

Primarily, the plate readers can be used in many ways, but Chief Michon Morrow says they will only allow them to be used for stolen vehicle, missing person and homicide cases. Those readers have a 60 degree field of view, can read plates across three lanes of traffic and out to 50 feet in front of the vehicle.

An example of what the ALPR photo looks like in reading information about a vehicle. (Courtesy of Lincoln Police)

The cameras are front-facing and automatically scan license plates that officers are driving past, alerting them if any plates are flagged. LPD’s new policy, released on Friday, does state that readers can be used for outstanding parking or traffic violations, unregistered vehicles and vehicles registered to individuals with outstanding warrants.

More about the policy can be found by clicking the link below.

LPD Policy on Advanced License Plate Readers

Axon, who supplies the readers, says that LPD is retaining more than 400,000 license plate records, following the trial run from mid-March through mid-October. Any suspected misuse of the readers, officers will be referred to internal affairs.