Prince William police recently honored Officer Michael Wantuck, who used his personal cell phone and innovative license plate reading technology to locate a suspect in a suspicious death case.
More in a police press release:
Congratulations to Officer Michael Wantuck who received Officer of the Month by his innovative use of technology.
The City of Manassas Police were searching for a person of interest in a suspicious death. He immediately searched through his ALPR (automatic license plate reader) for similar vehicles and after having little success, he used his personal SMART phone to access a national database of vehicles that have been scanned by other police agencies, tow companies, and other private companies.
He found that the vehicle had been recently scanned at a certain location; he responded and set up surveillance with City of Manassas detectives.
Contact was made and two persons were subsequently arrested and charged in the death. Officer Wantuck’s teamwork, use of technology, and tenacity allowed the City of Manassas to close this murder case quickly.
