Police, assessor look for violators

#Middlebury #Police #Assessor

Middlebury Police Officer Ron Hunt takes a short break from using the department’s new license plate reader. Shortly after this picture was taken, it alerted him to a problem license plate. (Marjorie Needham photo)

By MARJORIE NEEDHAM

For different reasons, both Middlebury Police and the Middlebury Assessor are interested in finding motor vehicles that are not properly registered. The police are concerned with motor vehicle violations; the assessor is looking for vehicles that should be on the Middlebury tax rolls.

The police are using a new tool in their search, a recently acquired license plate reader. The assessor, Chris Kelsey, is introducing a form residents can use to anonymously submit information on vehicles they suspect aren’t registered in Middlebury but should be.

Middlebury Police Chief Fran Dabbo took us to see the license plate reader in action as Officer Ron Hunt was using it on Straits Turnpike recently. Hunt said the reader, which can read 1,200 plates a minute, works really well. “It’s an excellent tool,” he said.

Cameras are set up on either side of the cruiser’s trunk. The one on the street side reads license plates of passing vehicles regardless of their direction of travel. The one on the curb side reads license plates when the cruiser travels through parking lots.

When a problem license plate is detected, Hunt said the cruiser computer emits a tone and the screen background turns yellow. The officer then pursues the vehicle and pulls it over so the license plate status can be checked.

Dabbo said in three hours on Oct. 15, the reader scanned close to 2,000 plates. On Oct. 24, the Middlebury Police Department teamed up with the Naugatuck Police Department and used the reader on Straits Turnpike. Dabbo said during that event, Middlebury Police stopped 29 vehicles. They issued 19 tickets and three summons and gave seven verbal warnings.

This QR code takes you to the Tax Evasion Form you can anonymously fill out and submit to the Middlebury Assessor.

While the police are focusing on motor vehicle violations, Kelsey is focused on vehicles that should be on the town’s tax rolls. He said he gets complaints all the time from people who see vehicles with out-of-state plates that they believe should be registered in Middlebury because the vehicles are spending most of their time here.

Not all out-of-state plates on local vehicles are illegal. New folks who move to town have 60 days to register their vehicles here, and folks who spend more than 183 days a year living out of state can legally register their vehicles in another state.

However, this reporter has known two Middlebury residents who lived here full time and drove at least one vehicle per household that was registered in another state. Kelsey is making it easier to anonymously report folks like that with a Tax Evasion Form you can find online at https://tinyurl.com/y3mluknu or by using a QR reader to read the pictured QR code. The form allows you to remain anonymous.