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Medford, Ore. – Medford police are working to return 9 stolen vehicles to their owners, all since in the new year. As NBC5’s Natalie Weber reports, a system built into their patrol cars may make all the difference.
“We get a lot of stolen vehicles this time of year, primarily in the morning time when people are leaving their vehicles running, ” said Officer Joshua Doney.
Medford police say it’s a piece of technology they’re thankful for; a system that helps them track down stolen vehicles.
“The ALPR cars, basically it stands for automatic license plate recognition.”
Especially as thefts spike. Officer Joshua Doney says they’ve had 9 vehicles stolen in just 11 days. The system on several of their patrol cars give them a helping hand.
“What it is is a series of four cameras that’s attached to our patrol vehicles, and they work with the computer inside the vehicle, and they use infrared technology to pick up license plates as we drive by.”
We asked Officer Doney to use the system on our news car and as we predicted, it didn’t come up stolen. But Doney says the technology has aided in numerous cases.
“Even on a homicide, when we have the suspect and we know what vehicle they’re driving, the system helps with that, recovering that information too.”
A system that could very well play a role in returning 9 stolen cars back to their rightful owners.
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