(Michigan City, IN) - License plate readers are providing a lot of leads for police in Michigan City, averaging about 70 detections an hour over the past month as per statistics Police Chief Steve Forker provided to the City Council last week.

Forker indicated many of the vehicles setting off the devices are not linked to major offenses, the pings correlating to people wanted for violations ranging from auto theft to driving with expired plates and a suspended license.

Forker said there were 52,000 hits over the last 30 day period via license plate readers recently installed in various areas of the city.

He went further, saying these notices must be investigated before anyone is taken into custody..

“Just because we get a hit on one thing doesn’t mean it’s accurate and it’s true.  We actually have to go through and verify it.  I know that we haven’t had 52,000 arrests because of that.  Those are hits on individuals essentially coming through Michigan City,” he said.

License plate readers countywide have resulted in numerous crimes, like auto theft and bank robbery, being solved this year.