The Grass Valley Police Department’s Automated License Plate Reader technology appears to be working well. The program initially only focused, about a year ago, on mobile “e-tagging” of vehicles with expired timed parking lot violations, by the Community Services Officer. And then, starting near the end of winter, earlier this year, the technology was also applied to 18 fixed-point devices all over town. Chief Alex Gammelgard says the data that’s transmitted can also flag stolen vehicles. He says 36 stolen vehicles have been recovered so far, and 26 were stolen from outside the county…

click to listen to Chief Gammelgard

Gammelgard says the license plate data can be linked to evidence in a serious felony investigation or associated with a missing person case, among other benefits…

click to listen to Chief Gammelgard

Retention of the data is for 30 days and then it’s deleted. Grass Police is the only local law enforcement agency using the technology so far. Gammelgard updated the City Council at its meeting Tuesday night, with the hope that the program will eventually become a permanent part of its budget.