A
system and method for an officer in the field to safely, efficiently, and quickly run
license plate numbers and collect
license plate numbers is provided. A central precinct
server maintains a
database of
license plate numbers, including plate numbers associated with specific instances and plate numbers of interest (e.g., stolen vehicle plate numbers). Periodically, a patrol car computer is provided with a
list of the plate number of interest (“hotsheet”) so that the patrol car computer is synchronized with the precinct hotsheet. The patrol car computer is configured with an audio
data entry means that allows an officer can speak license plate numbers into the patrol car computer. The spoken plate numbers are translated into text by the patrol car computer and the text plate numbers are then used to query the patrol car computer hotsheet to determine the status of the license plate number. The status can be displayed on the screen of the patrol car computer or indicated by an audio alert. Additionally, as an officer responds to an incident, the officer can speak license plate numbers into the audio
data entry means and those spoken plate numbers are translated into text and stored. All of the license plate numbers spoken by the officer while responding to the incident are collected together and associated with an incident number for the particular event. These license plate numbers are later uploaded to the central precinct computer for
collation with other collections of license plate numbers for the particular incident in order to create a comprehensive
database for the incident and also to identify license plate numbers that were spotted at similar types of incidents.