KINGWOOD — For the second week in a row, Preston County Commission learned the Preston County Sheriff’s Office was awarded a grant by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The most recent grant of $55,000 will purchase three license plate readers for the department, Melissa Hardy, administrative assistant for the sheriff’s office told commissioners on Tuesday.
“Sheriff, what’s a license plate reader do?” Commissioner Dave Price asked. “It reads the license plates right?”
Sheriff Paul “Moe” Pritt responded, “Absolutely. It’ll flag if it’s entered into a system, for example, it’ll flag a vehicle traveling in the opposite direction or past it, if it’s reported stolen or a sex offender or somebody’s a wanted person.”
Pritt said you can set the criteria the reader will detect in the system and the readers will be installed on three different vehicles.
According to the grant application, they will be put on vehicles used by the department’s three K-9 units.
The license plate readers mean those deputies won’t have to call plates in to 911 or run plates themselves.
“It’s automated,” Pritt said.
Interstate 68 runs through Preston County from the west to the “eastern urban areas of Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey as well as Washington, D.C,” the grant application states. “These are known and well documented illegal narcotic trafficking routes.”
The readers should increase the number of suspect vehicles identified and increase the effectiveness of law enforcement in reducing the flow of drug traffic, according to the grant application.
The commission voted unanimously to accept the grant.
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