License Plate Readers Coming To 4 Newtown-Wrightstown Intersections

NEWTOWN TOWNSHIP, PA — The Newtown Township Board of Supervisors on Wednesday night approved the purchase of an automated license plate recognition system that will monitor vehicles traveling through four major intersections in Newtown and Wrightstown townships.

The 5 to 0 decision allows the Newtown Township Police Department to move forward with a plan to purchase a Platelogiq advanced license plate recognition system to capture license plate images at three intersections in Newtown Township (Sycamore and Swamp, Newtown Bypass and Richboro Road and Newtown Bypass and Durham Road) and one in Wrightstown (Route 413 and 2nd Street Pike)

Cameras, mounted on the mast arms of the traffic signals, will capture the license plates of every vehicle passing through the intersections, flagging any that are in the NCIC, a national criminal justice database, according to Police Chief John Hearn.

"Wanted subjects, missing persons, stolen license tags, Megan's Law violations, terrorist watch lists. That's what the database searches out," said the chief. "When that data is tagged, when we have an alert for that particular vehicle, we stop that vehicle with due process and due cause."

The cameras will capture images of passing vehicles, allowing police to see the license plates, as well as vehicle make, model and color.

Each camera will provide coverage for both lanes of traffic during the day and at night. Each installation will also include integrated high-power infrared illumination for accurate captures during low light, high-speed conditions, according to Platelogiq.

According to Chief Hearn, license plate images will be retained for 30 days. "If it doesn't hit, it disappears in 30 days. If I get a hit on your license plate as unregistered, it will stay in there for 60 days. If there's a criminal investigation on the license plate we're going to keep it indefinitely until the case is closed."

In other business at Wednesday's meeting, the board of supervisors voted unanimously to purchase four new police cars through the state's CO-STARS program. The purchase will cost the township $250,783. The township had budgeted the capital expense at $255,000.