City police have been trying out new technology which may find its way into patrol cars across the city.

Using PlateScan from Civica software and some externally mounted cameras, the officers now have instant access to the data of all the vehicles they pass throughout their shift.

According to the LAPD: “This system has the ability to scan, recognize and process the plates of several hundred cars within a 15 minute period. The license plates are automatically cross-checked in real time against a number of local and national database to identify vehicles that are of interest to law enforcement.”

Ten stolen vehicles were automatically detected during the first week of tests using one unit.