Pretty soon the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office will have another weapon in the never-ending battle against criminals, petty and otherwise.

Sheriff’s deputies will have at their disposal two license plate scanners, devices that automatically scan license plates and issue alerts if the plate is tied to a stolen vehicle or a wanted person, for example.

Fayette Sheriff’s Maj. Bryan Woodie briefed the County Commission on the program last week.

The sheriff’s office is proposing to purchase two license plate scanners. One would be affixed to a patrol car and the other would be portable so it can be swapped in and out of vehicles and also used in stationary areas, Woodie said.

The $76,000 cost will be defrayed by a $17,000 grant anticipated from the federal government, with the remainder of the cost paid for by funds seized from drug dealers and other criminals, Woodie said.

While there’s no telling how effective the system will be here, Clayton County has had pretty good success in terms of recovering stolen vehicles, Woodie said.

This would not be the department’s first foray into technology for vehicle recovery. The department already has several patrol cars and its helicopter outfitted to receive signals from Lojack-equipped automobiles and other vehicles.

Those signals can be used to track the vehicles’ location for recovery purposes.