The province is rolling out 77 new automated license plate readers (ALPRs) to fight crime on Saskatchewan roads.
The ALPR’s will help officers target suspended drivers, stolen vehicles, and even cars connected to AMBER Alerts.
While some detachments in the province’s largest cities have used this technology for a few years, this new batch will be targeting rural areas. 69 of the readers will be installed in vehicles used by Ministry of Highways vehicle enforcement officers and conservation officers as part of the province’s new Protection and Response Team (PRT).
The PRT is a rural crime team made up of RCMP, municipal police, vehicle enforcement officers, and conservation officers with arrest and detention powers. The group’s aim is to improve police response time to emergency calls in smaller municipalities.
“It’s going to make our roads safer,” Lindsay Leko, a conservation officer with more than 25 years of experience, said.
“Just on the way into town from Weyburn this morning I had six hits for unregistered vehicles. I’m not sure if those are trailers or vehicles, but that’s quite a bit.”
Leko says it will also allow him to input data to search for people who may be suspended hunters or anglers.
“Instead of me trying to track them, it will automatically signal when we have a match.”
The remaining eight ALPR’s will be installed throughout Regina, Prince Albert and Moose Jaw in connection with Combined Traffic Services Saskatchewan (CTSS), in which police conduct a number of patrols outside their municipalities.
Outside of CTSS, there are currently four ALPR’s on Regina Police Service (RPS) vehicles, though they are not used by the plainclothes unit.
The readers also allow officers to look into Criminal Code offences. Stolen license plates can be entered into the Canadian Police Information Database in hopes an ALPR might pick it up.
In many cases, the recovery of a stolen vehicle can lead to the discovery of more crimes.
“Where one offence is committed, it’s probably not the first time, and it’s probably linked to other offences,” RPS spokesperson Elizabeth Popowich noted. “Every investigation can become very complicated because it may link to other investigations. In the same manner, every bit of information can also assist several investigations.”
Minister Responsible for SGI, Joe Hargrave, says ALPR’s will not invade the privacy of innocent drivers.
“It’s supposed to be wiped out at the end of the day. It only provides a brief thing. If the plate is not alerted, it’s off the system right away,” Hargrave told reporters.
Each ALPR costs roughly $28,000 to install in a vehicle and can scan a license plate every second. The 136 readers used across the province cost a total of 3.8 million, paid for by SGI.
Still, Hargrave says several municipalities are requesting readers of their own, so more could be on the way, adding the odds of getting caught just went up.