Health & Fitness
Woburn Police Receives $100,000 from Cummings Foundation
Cummings Foundation has awarded $100,000 to city of Woburn Police Department, allowing the Department to purchase three special new license plate reading systems for deployment in patrol vehicles.
WOBURN, May 17, 2013 – Cummings Foundation has awarded $100,000 to city of Woburn Police Department through its “$100K for 100” grants program. The funds, to be paid over two years, will allow the Department to purchase three of the special new license plate reading systems for deployment in patrol vehicles.
According to Chief Robert Ferullo, these remarkably fast digital readers will aid preventative law enforcement efforts, allowing patrol officers to electronically identify vehicles that either are wanted or have a history of past criminal wrongdoing.
Currently, officers must manually enter a plate number into their computers to check the legal history of a vehicle and its owner. The plate reading system offers an exponentially more efficient process. It will capture up to 1,800 license plates in a single minute, and alert the officer automatically when a number raises a red flag.
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First introduced in the Commonwealth in 2008, these systems are often used for traffic enforcement. They have also proven helpful in solving crimes, and could be used for AMBER alerts, missing persons cases, active warrants, and stolen vehicles.
Ferullo noted, “We are grateful for Cummings Foundation’s assistance in funding valuable modern technology that is not within the Department’s operating budget, but will help make our city safer.”
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In June, the Woburn-based Foundation will announce the full list of recipients of 100 grants of $100,000 each. Last year, 11 Woburn nonprofits received a total of $1.1 million in major awards from Cummings Foundation.
According to Dennis Clarke, president and CEO of Cummings Properties, the Foundation’s for-profit affiliate, the grants program has a strong focus on organizations that are both based locally and serve local communities.
Clarke noted, “The funding comes mostly from the real estate side of the organization, and so the Foundation feels strongly about giving back to the areas that were the original source of the funds.”
Cummings Properties manages more than 3 million square feet of commercial real estate in Woburn, including Cummings Park and the landmark TradeCenter 128.
More information about Cummings Foundation is available at www.CummingsFoundation.org.
