License plate cameras help Missouri police recover missing 6-week-old infant in 69 minutes 

Fast police work, coordination with state troopers and automated license plate reader cameras helped officers in Lebanon, Missouri, safely recover a missing 6-week-old baby in just over an hour Tuesday.

Lebanon police received a report Tuesday morning that the infant may have been taken from a community “free store.” A visiting out-of-town family member had been holding the child, and officers were called in when neither the relative nor the baby could be located a short time later.

Officers used the city’s automated license plate reader (ALPR) to spot the getaway car, which state troopers pulled over on the way to Jefferson City. Lebanon is a city in southern Missouri with about 15,000 residents.

“Technology like this doesn’t replace good police work – it speeds it up,” Lebanon Police Chief Jerry Harrison said in a release. “In a case like this, speed is everything.”

Only 69 minutes elapsed between the initial emergency call and the child’s safe recovery.

“This is exactly the kind of fast teamwork and coordination with our partners at the Missouri State Highway Patrol that this department trains for,” Harrison said. “Our officers did their jobs well today, and so did the tools we’ve given them to do it.”

The rescue comes just weeks after Lebanon City Council members put new privacy limits on the cameras into city law. Police say the system only captures images of car exteriors, deletes photos after 30 days and can’t be used for general surveillance.

Harrison noted in an August open letter that just eight installed Flock cameras – roughly one-third of the city’s planned system – had already helped clear eight cases by arrest, locate a missing person and a person in crisis, and recover a stolen trailer, a firearm and illegal drugs.

“Lebanon police believe our community shouldn’t have to choose between safety and freedom,” the department states on its transparency portal. “You should be able to expect both.”

(Image credit: Mother Flocker on Unsplash)