New Technology Helps Sheriff Keep An Eye on Crime

Known criminals will now have a much more difficult time making it through this county thanks to some new technology at the Pickens County Sheriff's Office.

Officials recently announced the addition of two new automatic license tag readers to two of the department's patrol cards. The tag readers will capture thousands of tag images daily with their high speed cameras and instantly compare the tag with a “hot list" in the cars’ onboard computers. 

The list is automatically updated twice daily from the S.C. Law Enforcement Division, Department of Motor Vehicles and FBI files on stolen cars, stolen and suspended license tags, amber alerts or wanted vehicles and other information related to wanted persons associated with a particular license tag.

"This is amazing technology that only a handful of law enforcement agencies in South Carolina presently have," Sheriff David Stone said.  "In the two weeks these units have been active, our officers have recovered dozens of suspended or stolen tags resulting in numerous citations with two subsequent arrests."

The Sheriff's Office acquired these units with approximately $26,000 of federal grant funds. 

"This is all part of an ongoing effort to add technology that will improve the efficiency and safety of our officers and at the same time do it cost effectively using Federal dollars, saving local tax payers the burden.  Common sense and sound law enforcement investigative techniques haven't changed, but ways to access information have," Stone said.