TERRELL HILLS, Texas – Those who live or drive through Terrell Hills may notice some added safety measures. The Terrell Hills Police Department posted ten license plate readers throughout the community.
“It will help solve cases a lot quicker,” said Terrell Hills Police Chief Gail Baham.
The license plate readers went up on Sept. 5. Baham says they’re already using the devices in several cases.
“We mainly deal with property crimes here in Terrell Hills,” said Baham, “If one of our residents gets a vehicle burglarized, I can go to a camera and pick up what vehicles were in the area at the time and get a suspect, that’s great.”
According to the Terrell Hills Police Department, the cost of the ten license plate readers totals about $60,000. Baham told KSAT that 73% of the cost was paid by their assets forfeiture fund from when they used to have a task force officer (TFO) assigned to the DEA.
“He works (used to) with the DEA, and a portion of the asset that they seized, we get a portion of that,” explained Baham.
As far as privacy concerns, Baham says pictures of license plates will be stored in their database for three years but will not be subject to or qualify for open record requests.
“It’s quite difficult to see who is driving the vehicle because the focus is on the license plate,” said Baham.
The ten license plate readers are located at:
100 block of Wiltshire Avenue
100 block of Geneseo Road
300 block of Garraty Road
1100 block of Garraty Road
1100 block of Eldon Road
100 block of South Vandiver Road
900 block of Eventide Drive
Terrell Hills Community Playground
800 block of Terrell Road
100 block of Dover Drive
