Forget scanning license plates; cops will soon ID you via your roof rack

Enlarge (credit: RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post via Getty Images)

On Tuesday, one of the largest LPR manufacturers, ELSAG, announced a major upgrade to "allow investigators to search by color, seven body types, 34 makes, and nine visual descriptors in addition to the standard plate number, location, and time."

Such a vast expansion of the tech now means that evading such scans will be even more difficult.

For years, Ars has been reporting on automated license plate readers (ALPRs, or simply LPRs)-a specialized camera often mounted on police cars that can scan at speeds of up to 60 plates per second.

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