License plate readers helping deputies catch more criminals

St. Johns County Sheriff's Office using new equipment

ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office is turning to technology to keep criminals off the street.

The use of license plate readers is helping deputies solve major crimes, including vehicle thefts.

“This is, for us, a law enforcement tool that has expanding capability,” said Chuck Mulligan with the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office. 

The readers are located on some patrol cars and throughout the county in undisclosed locations. They read the tags of cars driving by and compare them to a national crime database. Mulligan said the technology is getting serious criminals off the streets.

“In a five-day span, we stopped some five different stolen vehicles, and in those stolen vehicles we believe that many of them were coming to St. Johns County to commit burglaries because of the methodology which they were using,” Mulligan explained.

The readers look for serious criminals, not low-level offenders.

Since starting the pilot program last year, the LPR technology has helped with finding felony-level criminals and putting them behind bars. It helped the Sheriff’s Office capture a homicide suspect from out-of-state, a serial sexual child predator and track down numerous stolen vehicles, deputies said.

Because of the success of the readers, the Sheriff’s Office is starting to roll out more license plate readers in hopes of catching more criminals and keeping the community safe.

Mulligan said privacy is not a concern because the readers only run your tag, not your personal information.


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