CONWAY, SC (WBTW) – Conway could become the newest city to install license plate-reading cameras. City council discussed the readers with Police Chief Reggie Gosnell during a workshop earlier this month.
News13 first told you about the cameras last year when Myrtle Beach installed them around the city. The Conway Police Department wanted to first review the effectiveness in Myrtle Beach before installing their own.
Chief Gosnell told News13 Wednesday any city could benefit from this technology, and he wants to see it in Conway because of how many people pass through every day.
City Council will have the final say in how many readers are installed and where, but Gosnell said he hopes to get ones that mount on stoplights and ones that attach to police vehicles.
Software with the system could alert dispatch officers to vehicles wanted in criminal cases, missing persons, or cases in which vehicles have been stolen.
Highways 501 and 378, one of the busiest intersections in Conway and also one of the only ways in and out of the city, is a place police say would be perfect for a reader.
Another area of interest is downtown at 4 Avenue and Main Street. Gosnell told News13 he doesn’t mind the public knowing where these scanners could be installed.
“They’ve proven themselves to be an extremely good investigative tool,” he said.
The cameras capture vehicle tag numbers and data on those vehicles. Gosnell explains, “Any information on the direction of travel, time of day, day of week would be helpful if there is a need to locate that vehicle.”
They’d scan every plate that passes through, looking for cars associated with crimes. If they find one, police receive an automatic alert.
“The dispatcher then reviews that information and provides the officers that information with the last known location of that vehicle,” said Myrtle Beach Police Captain Joey Crosby.
Last year MBPD placed 16 readers in 6 locations throughout the city.
During the first six months alone, the readers captured over 8 million tags and returned alerts on almost 20 thousand.
“That’s a very good picture to how successful the LPR readers have been there,” Gosnell said about Myrtle Beach. News13 asked Gosnell about the cameras’ success in a city that’s seen a record number of shootings this summer.
“I don’t think I can relate those types of crimes to the LPRs,” Gosnell explained. “They’re just general investigative tools.”
Right now Gosnell does not have an exact cost of the project, but Myrtle Beach paid $227,000 for their 16 units.
