Chadds Ford Township supervisors are trying to decide whether to partner with Concord Township for a license plate reading camera system at the intersections of Routes 1 and 202. A least, that was their understanding as of a Jan. 3 request.
Shawn Petty of Platelogiq gave a brief presentation to the board during Tuesday night’s reorganization and regular monthly meeting. It was the same type of presentation Petty gave to Concord Township last spring.
Platelogiq is the largest provider of automatic license plate readers in the state, Petty said. But the cameras are not there to catch people running red lights. Instead, they record traffic through a given intersection and can — and do — help solve crimes by recording license plate numbers and vehicle color. The system does not track people, Petty said, but law enforcement loves the system.
“The technology is invaluable,” said Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Jon Sunderlin, commander of the Media barracks. “We rely heavily on local police departments that have Platelogiq.”
Sunderlin said the system recently helped state police solve a series of armed robberies after local police departments where cameras are located were able to find and later identify a suspect vehicle, which resulted in the arrest of the robber.
“This has changed the game of criminal investigation,” he said. “I can’t say enough about this system”
But the system can also be used to help find missing people. Petty told supervisors that Platelogiq was able to help locate an elderly man with memory problems when police accessed the system looking for the man’s car.
And only police departments can access the recordings. The videos can’t even be accessed by the municipalities that pay for the equipment.
And paying for the system is an issue. As Chadds Ford Township supervisors understand the current request, it’s a matter of the township partnering with Concord to pay for a camera at Routes 1 and 202, but Supervisors’ Chairman Samantha Reiner said she needs to know how much Chadds Ford would have to pay.
She said she’s opposed to a 50/50 split since Chadds Ford has one-fourth the budget and one-fourth the population of Concord. Supervisors won’t decide without knowing what it would cost.
Petty said he wasn’t certain what the cost for Chadds Ford would be.
Other business
• The board held its state-mandated reorganization meeting before the start of the regular meeting. Reiner was reelected as chairman and Frank Murphy — not in attendance —was elected vice chair.
Also, as part of the reorganization, Mike Schneider and Mike Maddren were reappointed to their current positions as township engineer and township solicitor, respectively, and Maddren was reappointed as the Planning Commission solicitor. Tom Comitta was reappointed as the land planner.
Other reappointments include Valerie Hoxter and Kathleen Goodier to the Planning Commission, Mark Stookey to the Sewer Authority, and Paul Kock to the Zoning Hearing Board.
• Supervisors also revised part of the township’s tax ordinance to bring it in line with a new state requirement that penalties and interest for late payments be waived under certain conditions.
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
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