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Tag readers a popular but controversial new police tool
Gainesville Police Department calls technology a valuable asset, but some raise privacy concerns
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Cameras on the left side of the patrol car shoot photos of vehicles to the front and rear. The right side shoots only toward the front. All cameras shoot a color and a black-and-white photo for each passing car — color for identification and black-and-white for an easier to read plate. - photo by NAT GURLEY
If you’re driving in Gainesville, that patrol car perched in the median might be reading more than your speed. The Gainesville Police Department has a patrol car mounted with a license recognition system, allowing the officer to record and run license tags using a character recognition software, a technology unavailable to the department until December. Nationally, capturing license tags is becoming a popular police tool.