PD gets two more license plate readers

It’s time to drive a little more carefully around the village. The Rockville Centre Police Department has received a state grant that it will use to purchase two license plate readers and other equipment.

The RVCPD received $100,000 from the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Grant (Byrne JAG) through the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. Aside from the two license plate readers, the RVCPD will use the grant to buy ammunition, a storage shed and law enforcement computer software. The software will be used for records management, handling reports, processing arrests and issuing tickets.

“The police department continues to purchase this equipment for the safety of Rockville Centre and the public,” said Lt. Chris Romance. “These grants help us acquire needed equipment that we can’t [get otherwise].”

Named after a police officer from Queens who died in the line of duty, the Byrne JAG is distributed from the federal government to the states. In New York, the Division of Criminal Justice Services distributes this grant. State Sen. Dean Skelos alerted RVCPD to the grant and helped secure it.

The new license plate readers will cost almost $80,000 all together. One license plate reader will be in a fixed location at Lakeview Avenue and North Centre Avenue. The other will be a mobile plate reader that can be put on a police car.

License plate readers help police log who goes through the village by scanning license plates and giving police information about the owner.

For example, if there was a burglary. The police know it happened at a certain time, and they have an idea of what the suspect’s car looks like. They can use the license plate reader to look at cars that left the village within that timeframe and narrow down their search. Romance said this sort of information is also useful in a missing persons case.

License plate readers are only designed to capture images of license plates, not the driver, their car or the surrounding area.

Right now, there are four license plate readers already in the village: one on Long Beach Road, another at DeMott Avenue, one at Seaman Avenue, and one at Hempstead Avenue in front of Molloy College.