Crime & Safety
Police Tout Technology in Announcing Arrests
The police department is crediting its new "license-plate reader" technology with the recovery of a stolen car and the arrests of the two men traveling in it.
Police say their new "license plate reader" helped them recover a stolen car that was being operated on Blackwood Clementon Road Wednesday afternoon.
Two Camden men were charged in connection with the car's theft.
Gloucester Township Police Ptl. Michael Miller was operating the automated license plate recognition system, which works through a patrol vehicle's laptop computer, along Blackwood Clementon Road around noon Wednesday when the device alerted him to a stolen car.
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Miller stopped the car—a gray Dodge Charger reported stolen from Philadelphia earlier in the week—as it pulled into The Birches apartment complex in Lindenwold, Lt. Jason Gittens said in a press release issued Thursday.
Police identified the driver as Turhan Ways, 27, of Morton Street, Camden. Ways, who was wanted by the Camden County Sheriff's Department and on outstanding traffic warrants, was charged with receiving stolen property, a third-degree crime, police said.
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The passenger, identified by police as Shamar Land, 26, of Yorkship Square, Camden, was charged with unlawful taking of a means of conveyance, a fourth-degree crime.
Ways was lodged in Camden County Jail in lieu of bail. Land was released on his own recognizance.
Police attribute the arrests of more than 20 wanted individuals and more than 300 motor vehicle summonses for suspended registration and driver's-license violations to the license plate reader.
"Obviously, it's been very successful," Police Chief W. Harry Earle said. "I think you'll see (police departments' use of license plate readers) expand throughout the region."
The license plate reader scans plates on passing vehicles to determine if the car is stolen or if the registered owner is a wanted person or has a suspended license, among other violations.
More than 80,000 license plates have been scanned by the new unit since it was put in service by Gloucester Township Police in mid-December.
The license plate reader utilized by township police is made by Federal Signal, of Oak Brook, IL.
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