Carbon County officials are adding some additional technology to the county parking lot in Jim Thorpe to help with security.

On Thursday, the board of commissioners approved a quote from Johnson Controls Fire Protection LP for the purchase of a license plate reader camera, which will be mounted on the parking lot booth to allow the reading of plates entering and exiting the lot. The total cost for the purchase is $2,950.71.

Commissioners’ Chairman Mike Sofranko said that the action is for security purposes.

“Sometimes when you have people coming in and out and don’t pay, you can cross reference the license plate to see if that happens,” he said. “Also, at times, we’ve had some issues of possible vandalism and that plate reader will let us know who is there at what time.”

Sofranko stressed that this action is not for monitoring purposes.

“We’re looking at it for security ... in case something happens,” he said, citing cases where a parked vehicle was hit and damaged. “You’d like to have the possibility of being able to research who may have done that and how that may have happened. This is all part of it.”

In addition, if law enforcement is tracking someone, the plate reader could help in specific cases.

“It’s has many benefits, and while the technology is there, it makes sense that the county use it,” Sofranko said.

Carbon County has been working to improve security around the downtown Jim Thorpe area in recent years, installing several cameras around county-owned structures.