El Cajon Police Department Rescues an At-Risk Missing Person Using License Plate Recognition Data

LIVERMORE, CA--Sept. 18, 2013: Vigilant Solutions announces today that El Cajon Police Department used its online investigative tools and historical license plate recognition (LPR) data to locate and rescue an at-risk missing person.

Chief Jim Redman of El Cajon Police Department states, "A 58-year-old man was reported missing to our department. He was considered "at-risk" due to the fact that he was an insulin dependent diabetic and also suffered from other medical problems. The case was challenging as there were no known areas that he frequented; the only information that we had was the license plate of the vehicle he was driving."

"Police Services Officer Deck was assigned to investigate the case," continues Chief Redman. "She checked his license plate against our local LPR cameras, and also against our state and regional database systems, but was unable to find any sightings of his vehicle. She then checked his license plate against Vigilant's LPR database and found three hits on his license plate in the prior two days, placing his vehicle in a parking area of a local trolley stop. Using this information, officers were able to locate the man who was sitting in his vehicle. The man was dehydrated and confused, and was transported quickly to a local hospital. It is because of the availability of this historical LPR data, collected and made available to law enforcement by Vigilant, that we were able to locate this man and bring him to safety."

Shawn Smith, Founder and President of Vigilant, states, "We often hear stories about how LPR is used to locate vehicles wanted in connection with crimes, and this obviously serves the public good by making our communities safer. But, we also love to hear stories like this where our systems and our data – coupled with good police work – help bring someone safely back to their family. We commend El Cajon for their efforts."