Henderson Police Chief Marcus Barrow sounded pretty impressed with Flock Safety’s device that reads license plates and said he hopes Henderson joins the growing ranks of cities in the area that are using technology to help combat crime.

The LPR – license plate reader – is a device that does exactly what its name implies – it reads the license plates of vehicles that pass by it.

Barrow told WIZS News Wednesday that an LPR provides real-time data to law enforcement agencies. “If we put an alert on a certain tag,” Barrow said, “it’ll send us (information) that tells us that vehicle has passed by.”

If an LPR detects that a vehicle has passed by the same LPR for, say 30 days, it’s a safe bet that the person driving that vehicle lives in that general area. That’s when police officers can zero in on that area and search for the car and then locate the person they’re interested in talking with.

Barrow said Wake Forest, Louisburg, Durham and other places in the area are testing the waters as LPRs gain popularity. And Raleigh is “inundated” with them, he said.

He plans to bring the request before the City Council at their next meeting.

LPRs are “vital,” to law enforcement, he added.

“If I can pull it off, it’ll help us out tremendously,” Barrow said.