SUGAR LAND, Texas — A license plate recognition camera helped confirm the identity of the man charged with killing Alief ISD teacher Wendy Duan, Sugar Land police said.
SLPD said the Flock camera was used to confirm that Charvas Thompson, from Houston, was at Duan's home after witnesses identified him as her killer. Thompson, 26, was arrested in Louisiana a few days later and charged with murder.
Through still images, the cameras collect car descriptions and license plates from the past 30 days.
"We just had the vehicle description," Sugar Land Police Assistant Chief Michelle Allen said. "If we have a vehicle description, then we can go into the system, we can input that vehicle description and it will actually search for the reads that corresponds to those kind of vehicles.
Allen said the system matched the vehicle description to Thompson's license plate.
Sugar Land police have around 100 of these Flock license plate readers throughout the city and they plan to add 100 more.
“They’re motion activated so they’re not doing anything until a vehicle passes a camera," Flock spokesperson Holly Beilin said. “A neighborhood can purchase this, share it with law enforcement and then take themselves completely out of the process.”