(Tuesday, June 21, 2011 @ 3:00pm) The Gwinnett County Police Department has purchased 3 Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPR) and will begin using them this week. The Gwinnett County Police Department is inviting all media outlets to attend a demonstration of these readers on June 21^st, 2011 at 3:00 pm. This will be held at the Gwinnett County Police Departments Central Precinct located at 3125 Satellite Blvd. in Duluth, Georgia.

The ALPR is a camera processing devise that is mounted on a patrol car that allows officers to capture and read up 1,800 license plates per minute, day or night, accurately recognizing plates from all 50 states, Canada, Mexico and many Arabic characters.  It can process parked and moving vehicles up to 4 lanes of traffic, day or night, in any weather. It will work at patrol and highway speeds- oncoming differential speeds in excess of 120 MPH and passing speeds in excess of 75 MPH.

The ALPR captures the images of license plates and instantaneously compares them with millions of Hot List records to identify vehicles of interest. The data recorded for each includes date and time stamp, photo of the vehicle and its immediate area, and GPS coordinates. This data can help lead to witness identification, Watch List development, placing a suspect at a scene, Terrorist Interdiction and Pattern recognition.

The Gwinnett County Police Department was able to purchase three Automatic License Plate Readers through cash forfeitures related to drug sales. Each ALPR cost approximately $20,000 each and will be a valuable law enforcement tool.