New Jersey PD using Genetec AutoVu Cloudrunner to close cases faster

MONTRÉAL – Technology provider Genetec announced that the Fort Lee, New Jersey Police Department has modernized its automatic license plate recognition technology (ALPR) with the Genetec AutoVu Cloudrunner vehicle-centric investigative system.

Connected to Manhattan, NY, via the George Washington Bridge, Fort Lee owes Its proximity to the major city for its traffic congestion and transient crime in the area. Its legacy ALPR system only generated a list of plates and vehicles which teams would then have to manually sort and narrow the data to find the vehicle in question. So, the department began looking for a way to minimize its investigative time by finding suspects and closing cases faster.

The department ultimately chose Genetec’s AutoVu Cloudrunner, a solar-powered, subscription-based, turnkey solution that uses vehicle characteristics combined with ALPR to enhance police departments’ ability to solve crimes. AutoVu Cloudrunner’s high-quality sensors deliver accurate reads day and night, in any kind of weather.

“AutoVu Cloudrunner has incredible edge-based intelligence and search capabilities,” said Fort Lee Police Department Lieutenant Thomas Porto. “When we’re looking for a vehicle the search is wicked fast, and being able to narrow down searches by make, model, color and time frame helps us speed up our investigation.”

Porto shared a recent case where the department received a 911 call late at night from a housing facility who observed suspicious individuals in a vehicle on the property. Tapping the AutoVu Cloudrunner camera in the area, the PD was able to use the time frame, location, and vehicle description to match the license plate info, which identified it as stolen. When the suspects abandoned the vehicle at a nearby school with which the PD had federated video, they were able to use the Genetec Omnicast video management systems (VMS) to see where the suspects had gone, quickly apprehending them safely. “This saved massive time and resources and led to a successful outcome for the community,” Porto said.

The AutoVu Cloudrunner solution is solar-powered and plug-and-play complete. Its audit features also help cut down investigative time and resources. Starting a search, for example, a user only needs to enter the case number once, and all subsequent searches in that query will be tied to that case number and logged in audit trails for compliance. 

The full interview with Porto can be found online here. For more information about the AutoVu Cloudrunner or other Genetec products please visit www.genetec.com.