BYTE OUT OF CRIME | GPD equipment upgrade helps spot predators in the pack

The camera’s lens notes each plate it passes, but only suspect vehicles get noticed.
Gladewater Police Department’s fleet is now rolling out with license plate readers (LPR) following a broad equipment and software upgrade to keep up with the times. The system’s linked directly to the Texas Crime Information Center (TCIC) along with the National CIC for real-time tracking of red-flagged vehicles.
It’s basically an always up-to-date ‘Be On the Lookout’ for specific, hotlisted vehicles. They may have been reported stolen, are tied to a missing or endangered person or are suspected of being in the active commission of a crime – whether that’s drug smuggling, human trafficking, robbery, burglary or some other imminent situation.
The system’s not “running” every license plate it passes, Gladewater Police Chief Kyle Ready confirmed, it’s just comparing the details against an dynamic database of known targets.
It’s useful when law enforcement is looking for a specific vehicle or ensuring a flagged car isn’t somewhere it shouldn’t be – i.e. a registered sex offender stopped in a restricted area.
“It identifies potential threats. Predators,” Ready said. “This is not average citizens.”
GPD’s latest upgrade isn’t just LPRs, he noted. The catalyst for the update was the slow failure of the department’s body camera systems (mandated statewide) and in-car systems due to, basically, old age.
From planning to execution, the project’s taken the better part of 16 months. It’s been a work in progress since Ready was brought on as police chief in Fall 2024.
“One of my goals was to upgrade the technology here – we were a little behind the times,” he said. “Body cameras and in-car systems tend to get replaced every 5-10 years, when they outlive their technical lifespan. They were so old the manufacturer at that point was declining to service them any longer.
“We were forced to look at buying new equipment from them or finding other options. Of course, that’s not a cheap venture.”
Motorola turned out to be the optimal solution for Gladewater, and GPD is now utilizing Vigilant software to integrate multiple platforms including Computer Aided Dispatch.
That will mean faster response times, Ready noted.
“Dispatch can look at a map and see live where our officers are and dispatch the closest one,” he said. It adds more in-car features as well: “The officers can actually run their own drivers licenses and car tags, things of that nature, to free dispatch from having to run that while they’re taking calls from people.”
In prior years, Ready noted, a License Plate Reader (LPR) system was a costly add-on.
“Now it’s built into the system, they just have to flip the switch,” he said. “It drove the cost down considerably.
“The technology has changed so much since I started 30 years ago. This is something we never dreamed of.”