YORK, Pa. -- Despite concerns about civil liberty infringement, mobile license plate readers will be available to York City Police following a unanimous vote of York City Council Tuesday.

The readers, which cost about $25,000 each, will include a series of cameras affixed to city police cars that scan license plates of parked or passing vehicles. The system then matches those numbers against criminal databases, allowing police to look for warrants, stolen vehicles and more.

The technology can also store the numbers of all license plates a patrol car passes on a shift, allowing police to later search lists for vehicles that were in an area during a crime.

Concerns about the power of such a system led council to approve the purchase with an attached resolution guiding police in their use of the scanners. That resolution, proposed by council President Genevieve Ray, stated that the system must be used "exclusively for traditional law enforcement purposes," and specified that the information collected cannot be sold.

Several residents attended the meeting to discuss the scanners, but none was more outspoken than Libertarian council candidate Manuel Gomez. Gomez said he worried that the resolution passed by council did not limit the data that could be accessed with the scanners, nor did it lay out a punishment for those who use the readers improperly.

Police Chief Wes Kahley said the scanners would be used in accordance with the law, and as such, penalties would apply for abuses of the authority. But the department will not place limits on the scanners use, he said.

Councilwoman Carol Hill-Evans questioned the cost of the scanners and projected life span of the technology. During a test run they paid for themselves within four details, and the technology has already been used in the city for seven years by county and state officials, Kahley said.

Councilman Henry Nixon said the scanners would actually be less intrusive than the manual license plate checks that police conduct now, which include all information found on a driver's license.

City resident Marie Rohleder shared a story of how her daughter was attacked in a mall parking lot. Her assailant was caught using license plate scanners owned by the mall, Rohleder said.

"If these scanners are going to help me be safer, fine," she said. "But all they need is proper supervision."

Ray said it was not council's job to write the rulebook on how the readers can be used. The resolution was intended to make council's intent clear to the police and the public, Ray said.

"I think this does it," she said.

Trinity UMC update

York City Council upheld a recommendation from the city's Historical Architectural Review Board denying Trinity United Methodist Church a permit for demolition. More than a dozen residents and officials attended the meeting, although the city fire department, which issued the order for immediate demolition, was missing.

Preservation officials presented a plan to restore the church for about $200,000, and a charter school official said she was interested in purchasing the building.

Council members questioned whether church officials were pressing for demolition to move ahead a church merger. "It's not about money," said Steve Hovis, an attorney for the church. "It's about our congregation."

Copyright 2011 - York Daily Record, Pa.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service