Thorpe police get grant for license plate readers

Jim Thorpe Police Department is planning to add automatic license plate readers to its patrol cars thanks to a Local Share Account state grant.

The borough is receiving $24,631 from the grant, which is made up of state gaming funds.

“We applied for this last year and we’re very thankful to state Rep. Doyle Heffley and state Sen. John Yudichak for helping get us the funds and build our arsenal of tools,” Jim Thorpe Police Chief Joe Schatz said.

According to Schatz, the readers will be installed in each vehicle and can scan license plates in both lanes of travel. The computer system will then alert officers if any of the vehicles has an expired registration. Officers can also see if the owner has a warrant out for them or if their insurance is expired or nonexistent.

A state law removed the requirement for motorists to put registration stickers on their vehicle starting in 2017. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation estimates the elimination of the registration sticker brings a cost savings to taxpayers of $1.1 million per year and an additional $2 million savings in mailing costs.

Schatz, however, said without physical stickers to see on the vehicle, departments have had to shell out large chunks of money to buy the equipment necessary to do their job.

“These cost about $25,000, so without the grant, it would have been really hard to get them,” Schatz said. “Other than us right now, Lehighton is the only other local department I know of that has them.”

Jim Thorpe is hoping the readers provide multiple benefits, not just catching expired registrations.

“We could hit every street on a regular basis and scan the plates so that if there is a burglary on a particular street, we can go back and look at the data and see what plate may be out of place there,” Schatz said. “That may give us a starting point with that particular investigation. I think it could be beneficial in a lot of ways.”

Mayor Mike Sofranko said he hopes that people knowing Jim Thorpe has the readers may act as a crime deterrent.

“If you’re thinking of coming here and doing something, well maybe you don’t now that we have the readers and have the ability to scan those plates and get some more information than we might otherwise,” he said.