GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A Green Bay murder suspect is behind bars, and police say new license plate reading cameras helped make the arrest.
the cameras were installed this summer on a trial basis.
If helping track down a murder suspect isn’t enough, one of Green Bay’s police officers recently had quite the review for the automatic license plate readers.
“One of the officers said this was the most useful piece of technology that has ever come through the city of Green Bay since they’ve been working here,” said Captain Gary Richgels of the Green Bay Police Department.
Alejandro Cantu appeared in Brown County Court Thursday afternoon after being taken into custody in the early morning at an east side hotel.
Cantu, his brother Gustavo and Jacob Ventura, are charged with the April murder of Randall Denny near Perkins and Western Avenues. Prosecutors say it was over a drug deal.
“What this young man did to my son is unspeakable,” Denny’s mother told the court before Cantu’s bail was set at $2 million.
Police wouldn’t get into details of how the plate readers helped arrest Cantu — only that the system helped locate the vehicle he was traveling in.
Richgels says the system can identify where a vehicle is or has been within seconds by entering a vehicle’s make, color, license plate or sometimes even a bumper sticker.
FOX 11 asked Richgels how much more time it might have taken the department to arrest Cantu if they did not have this technology.
“A lot because when you’re given a description of a vehicle, there is no way to get the plate just off of that. There always has to be more to that.”
There are 28 license plate readers at the major intersections and bridges throughout the city. Police say they capture an average of 7,000 vehicles a day and the data is stored for 30 days and then deleted.
FOX 11 asked police if they know how many cases the plate readers have helped.
“I don’t have the numbers of how many it was, but I know when I asked for success stories, it did not take long to get many,” said Richgels.
Police say the readers are also helping build a case against Caleb Anderson, the man suspected of killing someone on Packerland Drive and then fleeing to Alabama, where he is charged with another murder.
The police department says these cameras will not be used to give traffic style tickets. They aren’t red light cameras, which are illegal in Wisconsin.
Police say they are working on a request for proposals to have plate readers long-term.
