The Evesham, New Jersey police department recently installed a high tech automatic license plate reader on one of its squad cars; the license plate reader, attached to the outside of a police car, relies on an infrared camera to photograph license plates and automatically runs it through several databases; the searches are designed to alert officers if the plates are linked to criminals, unregistered vehicles, or unpaid fines; in one month, Evesham police scanned 69,000 plates, returning 1,400 alerts of interest including several unregistered vehicles that led to large narcotics busts; officers see this technology as way to increase efficiency and do more with less given budget constraints