Indianapolis man arrested after camera system detects stolen car

Bartholomew County authorities are crediting an automated license-plate reading camera system with the recovery of another stolen vehicle and the arrest of the driver over the weekend.

The camera system alerted deputies to a stolen vehicle entering the county at about 7:15 Sunday morning, according to sheriff’s department reports. Deputies soon located the vehicle in the 3000 block of North U.S. 31. After stopping the vehicle, a search revealed drugs and drug-related paraphernalia inside.

The driver, 27-year-old Sklyer Maggard of Indianapolis was arrested on preliminary charges of vehicle theft, possession of the drugs and paraphernalia and an outstanding out-of-county warrant.

The camera system, known as FLOCK, was purchased by Bartholomew County last year. The cameras have the ability to read license plates and quickly process those against a database to alert police with various pieces of information, such as the plate of a stolen vehicle, or a vehicle suspected in a child abduction or missing persons case. That information would be processed within moments and then forwarded to on-duty deputies via a computer program in their vehicle, authorities said at the time.