Middletown Township is set to install three new fixed license plate readers at key intersections throughout the area.
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The Middletown Township Board of Supervisors earlier this month entered into a five-year agreement with Plate Logic, a company specializing in license plate recognition technology, to install and maintain the new systems at a cost of $15,900 annually. The first year of the contract will be funded through a grant from the Redevelopment Authority of Bucks County.
The planned deployment includes a comprehensive setup at the intersection of East Lincoln Highway and Woodbourne Road, where four cameras will be installed. Additional cameras will be placed at the intersections of Veterans Highway and New Falls Road and Bristol-Oxford Valley Road and New Falls Road, with each receiving two cameras to monitor traffic.
Chief Joseph Bartorilla said the new cameras will complement the existing license plate readers operational at the intersections of East Lincoln Highway and I-95 and Langhorne-Newtown Road and the Newtown Bypass. Those systems were installed last year.
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The surveillance tools are designed to capture and analyze license plates and check them in real-time with databases maintained by PennDOT and the FBI’s National Crime Information Center.
The access to license plate data will allow law enforcement get more information for criminal investigations, missing persons cases, and traffic studies.
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Addressing potential privacy concerns, Bartorilla referenced a 2023 Superior Court ruling affirming the legality of such surveillance systems. He reassured the community that the police department has established policies governing the use and management of data collected by these systems.
Mike Ksiazek, chairman of the Middletown Township Board of Supervisors, said the license plate readers are an “invaluable resource” for law enforcement.
“I think the benefits outweigh the costs. It’s a really good idea,” Ksiazek said
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In other business, the Board of Supervisors approved the purchase of four new police vehicles for the year 2024.
The total expenditure for acquiring and outfitting the vehicles for police use will be $239,000, a figure that falls below the initially anticipated $325,000. The majority of the cost will be paid for by the Redevelopment Authority of Bucks County grants and the rest picked up by the taxpayers.
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The new vehicles, three cars and one truck, will replace three vehicles that are deteriorating due to age and use.
The cost of police vehicles, along with the essential in-car technology such as computers and radios, has seen a significant uptick over the past decade, Bartorilla said.
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“Four vehicles today cost what five to seven would have cost before,” said Bartorilla.
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