Vice Mayor Mike Morowit wants to make his district as well as the rest of Manteca a safer place to live.

It is why he is considering spending a chunk of the $450,000 in COVID federal  relief funds he has been allocated to spend on city needs as he sees fit for license plate readers.

The city has a limited number of such devices in place at four intersections.

Even so, they have been an invaluable law enforcement tool that does more than just spot stolen vehicles.

Most recently, they helped police hunt down and arrest a murder suspect.

And while they read license plate numbers, the technology also allowed the department to enter specific car makes, and details such as specific damage to a vehicle and whether it has a bumper sticker in a specific location.

That information fed into the system produced a number of images of vehicles for police to examine. Once they found the suspect vehicle, they also had an image of the license plate.

 Using that information, they did further investigation and made an arrest.

“It’s something that can help make not just my district (Area 4, north of Louise Avenue except for east of Highway 99) but the entire city safer,” Morowit said.

Morowit would like to see them deployed along Lathrop Road just west of the Highway 99 interchange at Main Street.

That way it avoids the roughly two-year process to gain approval and coordinated work with Caltrans to place cameras within the state’s jurisdiction.

Police have said the most effective places to install just readers are at entrances to the city as well as known high-theft areas.

Morowit is hopeful other council members will chip in for license plate readers from their allocations as well.

Charlie Halford, who is a former police chief and knows how effective such technology can be, has indicated he is considering doing just that.

The city current has license plate readers at Lathrop Road and Union Road, Lathrop Road and Airport Way, Airport Way and Louise Avenue, as well as Airport Way at Union Road.

Interim Police Chief Stephen Schluer indicated the department is in the process of changing vehicle cameras in all of its patrol units to a system that also do double duty as license plate readers.

It is a different system than what is currently in use as it includes cameras that can view up to four lanes clearly instead of just one lane.

The system is similar to what most regional jurisdictions use.

As such, departments can enter “hot” vehicles numbers tied to those wanted for serious felony crimes for the readers to scan plates for.

The department is also hoping to secure a grant that will allow the purchase of up to 40 license plate reader cameras.

Schluer said the license plate readers help make officers more efficient in not just solving crimes but in apprehending criminals as well.

Part of the municipal spending plan adopted for the fiscal year that started July 1 included a provision for $2.5 million of the remaining $8.6 million in federal COVD relief funds to be directed to municipal projects by individual council members.

Mayor Gary Singh was assigned $700,000 for at-large projects. Each council member will decide how to spend $450,000 among the $2 million assigned to the four districts.

The one-time expenditures can be within their district. Members can also combine funds to underwrite endeavors that will have a citywide impact.

The process — a first for Manteca — enables elected leaders that arguably have a better feel for what people in the community want to see done with limited funds that are for one-time expenditures to decide where the money will be spent.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com