Carjackings Intensify City's Need For License-Plate Scanning Technology
CHICAGO (CBS)--As Chicago police warn the North Side of the city about a rash of recent carjackings, police are working behind the scenes to combat carjackers using license plate-scanning technology.
A group of men is wanted in the six carjackings that have occurred in recent weeks. Police say the suspects target distracted drivers either sitting inside their vehicles or standing nearby where their car is parked.
Some of the carjacking victims reported the suspects using a gun.
Chicago police, in an effort to combat crime like the carjackings on the North Side, are rolling out more license plate readers able to scan license plate numbers in seconds and match the data against a list of stolen vehicles.
So far, police have installed the scanners on 45 squad cars.
The technology doesn't come cheap. The Chicago Police Department spends $25,000 to equip each squad car with a scanner.
Arrests can't come soon enough for North Side residents shaken by the carjackings.
"We feel like this is so safe, and then the next thing you know it's happening--literally a block from our house," Pamela Katz said. "I feel we are fairly sheltered up here to a certain degree, and then this happens and you are like, 'what the heck.'"
