CHICAGO, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Chicago mayor on Tuesday unveiled a new tool that police officers can use in cracking down on carjackings in the third largest U.S. city.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel told a press conference that 200 new patrol vehicles will be equipped with License Plate Reader (LPR), which can help officers quickly identify stolen vehicles.
"Equipping squad cars with state-of-the-art technology and deploying them to every district in Chicago will help the Chicago Police Department continue to drive down crime in communities across the city," said Emanuel.
According to the mayor's office, LPR technology allows police to match license plates against the list of stolen vehicles sent daily to the LPRs. If the LPR system identifies a stolen vehicle, officers are automatically alerted so they can investigate further.
The alerts will also be analyzed in high-tech nerve centers within police district centers across the city.
The first 50 LPR-equipped vehicles will be deployed this month. All 200 patrol cars will roll out by early March 2019.
Chicago recorded nearly 1,000 carjackings in 2017, a trend that unnerved residents and visitors alike. Since 2018, Chicago police resorted to new technologies and cooperated with federal and state law enforcement agencies to curb violent carjackings.
The efforts resulted in an 18 percent reduction in carjacking cases and a 31 percent increase in arrests in 2018 as compared to the previous year.
"The recovery of these stolen vehicles and the arrest of the individuals driving them will serve as a deterrent to other individuals considering committing similar crimes," said Chicago police chief Eddie Johnson.
