DAVENPORT-- The 'ding' sound is a good sound when you're in this car. It's called the LPR Camera Car, and it stands for license plate recognition.
Four cameras mounted to the front and back of the sedan. And they're on the hunt for license plates.
"When we drive down the road, it tags nothing but license plates constantly when we drive," says manager of Road & Wrecker, Patsy Gray.
The system then stores the license plate number and where it was tagged.
"We average I would say 24,000 plates a week," says Gray.
Gray owns a car impound and repossession towing company in Davenport. She uses the technology to connect financial companies with cars up for repossession. But she thinks the system can do even more.
"We're just trying to hit everywhere we possibly can. The more data we collect, hopefully we can help find someone's vehicle," says Gray.
With every plate scanned, Gray says that's one car that could be reported stolen and recovered.
"If we just happen to be out and spot one, it would be amazing, just having an extra eyeball out there," says Gray.
The idea is to offer the service to local law enforcement for free to help them find stolen cars. If the car ever scans a stolen plate, Gray gets an alert.
"If it was reported stolen yesterday and it shows up in our system today, we'd know."
From there she would contact police.
Patsy says sometimes towing companies get a bad wrap.
"We're not always the bad guy. Maybe we can help find and retrieve a stolen vehicle," says Gray.
She hopes one say that sound could help solve crimes.
Besides stolen cars, Gray also thinks her license plate recognition technology could help if there was ever an Amber Alert in our area.