License plate readers prove their worth
St. Joseph police provided an interesting tidbit following the arrest of a carjacking suspect Sept. 14.
"License plate reader cameras later tracked the vehicle in Andrew County," according to the account posted on News-PressNow.com.
The technology, installed at around 10 undisclosed locations in the city, can scan license plates and alert police to the whereabouts of a vehicle connected to a serious crime. This investigative tool led to the arrest of the suspect in the carjacking on South 24th Street.
At this point, we don’t know how often license plate readers are used or if the technology even belonged to the SJPD in this particular case. The vehicle was tracked in Andrew County.
We do know that law enforcement technology generates concerns about violations of privacy or the waste of money on expensive gadgets. (Think of the outcry with red-light cameras a few years back.) With license plate readers, police emphasized that the technology in St. Joseph was purchased with grant money. It is used for serious crimes and not ticky-tack traffic violations.
As this instance shows, the public’s concerns have to be balanced with the desire to address crime, especially violent crime.
If law enforcement has technology that works, and puts reasonable safeguards in place, then the public should be willing to embrace it. This is especially true for a license plate reader system that appears less invasive than the cameras used to record every motorist on the Kansas Turnpike.
The carjacking arrest provided a real-world example of the benefits that license-plate reader technology brings to St. Joseph.
Speaking of interesting tidbits
The U.S. Census Bureau puts St. Joseph’s poverty rate at 14.6% for 2024, higher than 12.3% in Missouri and 12.1% nationwide.
We’ve heard that before, but there’s another story here. Poverty rates are roughly the same for those 65 and older across the board. Child poverty is higher nationally than in St. Joseph.
The big disparity comes with the rate of poverty for those in the prime working ages of 18 to 64: 11.2% nationwide, 11.8% in Missouri and 15.5% in St. Joseph. When looking for a reason, the big clue comes from education levels.
St. Joseph lags way behind in the percentage of the population (age 25 and older) with a bachelor’s degree or higher: 20.9% here compared to 33% in Missouri and 36% nationwide. If you think trade school is another good option, you’re right.
But in St. Joseph, the adult population with only a high school diploma (no trade school or college) is 41% in St. Joseph, 29.5% in Missouri and 25% nationwide.
In trying to figure out a reason for St. Joseph’s higher poverty rate, it’s time to move past the knee-jerk reaction that poor people are lazy or businesses are cheap.
It’s about decisions made in the late teens and early 20s.
