MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Memphis City Council committee voted Tuesday to support adding license plate readers to interstates.

During the meeting, Memphis Police Chief CJ Davis proposed to add 94 cameras to entrance and exit ramps on the interstate to assist the Memphis Police in tracking crime.

“This helps us to track individuals that might be involved in various types of criminal activity, whether it’s stealing a vehicle, a robbery, carjacking, or a potential active shooter,” said Davis. “This helps us to track those individuals by having that technology in certain places.”

According to MPD, the cameras will be paid for through a grant. MPD needs to ask the Tennessee Department of Transportation for permission to install them on interstates.

She said that is just the beginning of that project.

City Councilwoman Yolanda Cooper-Sutton (District 8-3) asked the police chief if the license plate readers would detect paper tags.

“It will not work on paper tags. That takes a different level of response and work from our officers to address that very prolific issue in the city,” said Davis.

She said that the LPR system is helping MPD with stolen vehicles.

TDOT is looking to have this project extended across the state.

A spokesperson with MPD says the license plate readers would be like Flock cameras or actually could be Flock cameras which WREG showed you back in 2021 when we got an up-close look at how the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office used them at the time saying they had been successful tracking down criminals, as well as crime trends, allowing detectives to also develop new leads.

Councilman Jeff Warren (District 9-3) asked the police chief if there was something the council could do to make the system for paper tags different because of people getting automatically stopped for having paper tags.

She said officers will pull people over who have paper tags because it is easy to detect a counterfeit paper tag.

Chief Davis addressed that it goes back to a past council meeting topic of whether mandatory car inspections should be enforced because of numerous problems, like insurance or tags.

She said inspections may help regulate vehicles and drivers to be aware that they cannot drive without a legitimate insurance and tag.

Davis said that because there are no inspections, some drivers drive without insurance, and in the case of an accident, drivers who do have insurance will have to pay more to take care of damages. They would also have to pay more for their insurance.

She said the penalties are just not penalties in traffic court.

Warren said he will discuss mandatory inspections of cars later on with the council.

The committee voted to support the resolution proposed by the police chief to have license plate reader systems on the interstate.