officer chris tong is patrolling the streets of richmond that. ding you hear is the sound of a license plate reader. watch what happens when he passes a stolen vehicle. >> it's just triggered on an unoccupied vehicle. turn around and take a look what we've got here. >> the unoccupied vehicle was a stolen nissan sentra caught by the high-speed infrared camera, a series of computer algorithims identified the vehicle's license plate and checked it against a database of wanted cars all in a matter of seconds. >> license plate reader keeps track of a lot of the information that the vehicle was indeed stolen when the vehicle was reported stolen, when we located the vehicle. center. >> these cameras scan several hundred to a thousand plates an hour. much more than an officer could do in a shift. multiplier. >> captain ursey joiner, iii has been with the police department 23 years. >> we are an agency back in 2010 had 830 sworn police officers. right now, we are hover be around 614 and it's not getting better in the near future. i do have to be more effi