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The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office in South Carolina has recently expanded its network of automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) cameras throughout the area.
These high-tech cameras assist law enforcement in collecting details about vehicles, including their color, make and model, license plate number, and the identity of the registered owner.
Initially, the sheriff’s office allocated approximately $250,000 for this technology last year. However, Sheriff PJ Tanner revealed that the investment has now risen to nearly $400,000.
“We’re exploring a few additional projects,” Sheriff Tanner stated. “We plan to discuss further camera installations with the council during this budget cycle.”
Currently, the sheriff’s office has strategically installed 37 cameras across the county, and local municipalities have also set up their own systems.
The Town of Bluffton has 19 cameras, Beaufort has 19 and Hilton Head Island has 15. The sheriff said all their systems are integrated, so they can utilize each other’s cameras.
In the upcoming budget session meetings with the Beaufort County Council, Sheriff Tanner said he plans to ask for more cameras.
“I think another 10 or 15, we’ll be in good shape,” he said.
He explained that the number is still less than in other counties, and even smaller municipalities within them.
The city of Hardeeville in the neighboring Jasper County has 70 cameras alone, according to the sheriff. Myrtle Beach has 1,000 cameras, Charleston and North Charleston combined have 65, and Savannah has 73.
Sheriff Tanner said he expects those numbers to grow, and they should because the camera systems are a great tool.
“The reason they are popular is that it helps us not only be reactive in certain scenarios, but it gives us that proactive crime prevention technology,” he said.
ALPR’s have gained popularity from law enforcement agencies across the country. Those agencies can access and share information gathered on stolen vehicles, missing persons, wanted suspects and more.
“We can upload and hunt you down, so to speak. We can find you within the county, quite honestly. We can find you most anywhere,” said Tanner.
BCSO recently added more cameras after an influx of drive-by shootings in the northern parts of the county in the last several years.
“We have cameras now throughout the county, which helps us monitor those type situations. So, if we have a drive-by shooting at 2:00 in the morning at a certain location, we can go back and look at the cameras that are relevant to that area and pick up the vehicle movements,” the sheriff said.
Tanner said the cameras help cut down on deputies’ time collecting the same type of data.
“If I were to put a deputy in a vehicle or sitting on the side of the road in a lounge chair with a pen and pad and every car that travels that road, he can write that tag number down. Is that reasonable or realistic? No, it’s not,” he said. “The same data that I could collect that way is being collected by a camera 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
There have been concerns brought to the sheriff’s attention about privacy invasion, as well as how long the sheriff’s office has access to footage. He responded that the footage gathered from the system is deleted after 30 days.
The sheriff said 83 million vehicle tags have been located using these cameras and only 4,000 out of the 83 million were queried.
“That’s like 0.004%. It’s very it’s a very small number,” the sheriff said.
He also said their focus is on criminals in the county.
“We don’t have an interest in you unless you’re involved in criminal activity,” he said.
Tanner said, “If you’re offended by an ALPR, which is capturing information that you provide the state, that we extract, then don’t be offended when you go to the grocery store and there are cameras in the grocery store. Don’t be offended when you’re pumping gas at a gas station. Don’t be offended when you go to a friend’s house or a relative’s home and there’s a Ring doorbell and you’re being videoed at their homes.”
The sheriff said any type of video security is good, and they recommend it for people’s personal use as well.
“We encourage people all the time to invest in crime prevention measures like alarm systems and appropriate lighting at their homes. But also, we ask you to invest in cameras because it is a great opportunity to protect your property. And if something happens at your property or at your neighbor’s property, that video can be critical to that investigation and it can help us solve the case,” he said.
The purpose of the sheriff’s office asking for more cameras is to increase its security in the county.
“As a victim of a crime, they want that case solved and the more surveillance-type equipment that we have that’s helping us do that job, the more eyes that we have in a community on a roadway, those are benefits to the community and informing public safety,” said Sheriff Tanner.