DA seeks state grant for license plate readers
Washington County commissioners approved a $150,000 grant application prepared by District Attorney Gene Vittone to purchase and install automated license plate readers at eight intersections.
Vittone is seeking the money from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, according to information submitted to the commissioners in advance of their meeting Thursday.
In an interview Wednesday, Vittone declined to identify the eight intersections.
“It doesn’t help you when the bad guys know where it is,” he said.
His objective in applying for the plate readers would be to “track crimes immediately,” mentioning a possible scenario such as a child being abducted by a stranger.
He called kidnapping “a scenario that keeps me up at night.”
Vittone lamented no such system was in place June 13, 2013, when Good Samaritan Vinny Kelley, 46, followed a robber from Citizens Bank in the Strabane Square Giant Eagle grocery store and paid for it with his life.
An automated teller machine provided the sole video of the getaway car, a small to mid-sized white, four-door sedan that turned onto Route 19 south toward Interstate 70. The case remains open.
Vittone has discussed the use of the car registration readers with Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala.
“We’re trying to team up with Allegheny County on this and get a pretty good, efficient system in place,” Vittone said.
The readers can be mobile or fixed high-speed cameras that, when combined with computer algorithms, convert images of license plates to computer-readable data.
State Reps. Greg Rothman, R-Cumberland, and Rob Matzie, D-Ambridge, sponsored a bill that passed the General Assembly in January and would limit the use of automated license plate reading systems to law enforcement purposes only, and prohibit the sale or exchange of the information. It sets time frames for the destruction of data collected.
According to a legislation-tracking website, the House bill was referred to the state Senate Transportation Committee.