Ottawa police have a new set of eyes on the road -- one that can register 5,000 licence plates an hour.

Last week, police rolled out their first cruiser equipped with Automatic Licence Plate Recognition. The infrared camera mounted on top of the cruiser registers a license plate every second, feeds it into a database and then flags illegal drivers.

The 6-month pilot project is using the technology to target everything from suspended drivers to suspects.

“We were out for an hour and we caught two suspended drivers, one of whom was uninsured and had a validation marker which expired in 2015,” Sgt. Robert Cairns of the Ottawa Police Service told CTV Ottawa during a test drive.

“It specifically looked for suspended drivers under the Highway Traffic Act. It will look for disqualified drivers under the criminal code. It will also notify us of wanted persons.”

The technology can be used to track down vehicles connected to Amber Alerts, which are issued when a child is abducted or in danger, as well as high-risk offenders.

The widespread applications of licence-plate reader technology are exactly what critics have raised privacy concerns about in the past.

In 2013, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association said it had no problem with the technology so long as its scope was focused on catching illegal drivers and not on gathering data. The organization pointed to the roots of the technology, which was developed in the U.K and had been used for surveillance.

Ottawa police said that licence plate information will be deleted immediately if it doesn’t show up in their data base. But if the radar flags the licence plate, it will stay in the system for five years.

New Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) reads 5000 plates per hour &will alert officer to any irregularities. pic.twitter.com/zQxJYuzQIB — Ottawa Police (@OttawaPolice) September 1, 2016

The technology has been used by the OPP but Ottawa hopes to have more cruisers of their own after this pilot project. The cameras cost $40,000 and are funded through Ottawa’s safer roads program.

“This will produce revenue however the sole primary reason this was purchased or acquired by the Ottawa police service was road safety,” said Cairns.