PHILADELPHIA -- A sport utility vehicle outfitted with license plate reader technology and Google Maps logos belongs to the Philadelphia police department, a police spokesperson told Motherboard in a statement.

The statement said that the "placing of any particular decal" on the unmarked vehicle was "not approved through any chain of command." The department has ordered the decals to be removed from the vehicle, the statement said.

A photo of the vehicle was posted on Twitter on Wednesday by Matt Blaze, a professor of computer and information science at the University of Pennsylvania.

WTF? Pennsylvania State Police license plate reader SUV camouflaged as Google Street View vehicle. pic.twitter.com/0z4yo2rVoR — matt blaze (@mattblaze) May 11, 2016

Pennsylvania State Police responded to Blaze, saying the vehicle did not belong to them.

Matt, this is not a PSP vehicle. If this is LPR technology, other agencies and companies might make use of it. https://t.co/ekJrN4lF2h — PA State Police (@PAStatePolice) May 11, 2016

Philadelphia-based journalist Dustin Slaughter first posted a story about about the vehicle on Motherboard on Thursday morning, writing that Philadelphia's fleet manager said the vehicle did not belong to the Philadelphia Parking Authority, which also uses automated license plate recognition.

A Google spokesperson said the truck was not their property.

Then a police spokesperson on Thursday told Motherboard in a statement that the vehicle belonged to the department, which was planning to investigate the matter.

Erin O'Neill may be reached at eoneill@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @LedgerErin. Find NJ.com on Facebook.