The village of Bartonville is set to use a 50 thousand dollar grant to purchase two mobile license plate readers for police patrol vehicles.
Bartonville Police Chief Brian Fengel said the readers will help crack down on an uptick in vehicle thefts in recent years.
“We’ve had a number of stolen vehicles this year. It seems like it’s on the rise. Whether it’s joyriding or just taking vehicles with keys left in it," Fengel said.
The readers will scan license plates on the road and run them against a database of stolen vehicles and let officers know when a flagged plate number pops up.
Fengel said a number of law enforcement task forces formed to make a dent in the stolen vehicle problem “basically stopped” when the state budget impasse began.
