Laurel Police begin 60-day trial of license-plate readers and add drones, officials say

The Laurel Police Department is piloting mounted license-plate-reading cameras on northbound U.S. Route 1 near Maryland Route 198 as part of a 60-day trial with Axon, officials said. Captain Steve Ivory described the system as two-pronged: cameras capture plates and automatically compare them to a maintained "hot list" of wanted or stolen tags and send alerts to dispatchers.

"What this camera will do for us is it's kind of two-prong. It has license plate reading capabilities, so if a car that is stolen or wanted goes past it, it'll send an alert to dispatchers," Captain Steve Ivory said. The department also has added two aerial drones and reports the drone arrives on-scene before officers in roughly 70% of calls; city council approval for the technology came in July at a cost of more than $89,000.