A contraption atop some unmarked Colorado Springs police vehicles may look a little funny — like spotlights rather than the traditional light bar — but actually serves a larger purpose: reading license plates.

The department has used the automatic license plate readers since 2009, but recently received five upgraded models through the 2018 Beat Auto Theft Through Law Enforcement (BATTLE) grant. The readers sit on the tops of unmarked police vehicles, much like a light bar would, and are used to scan nearby vehicles for stolen license plates or vehicles.

As a part of the BATTLE South Task Force, the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office also received five readers, the Pueblo Police Department received three, and the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office, Woodland Park Police Department and Fountain Police Department each received one.

The tools have proved to be vital to motor vehicle theft investigations in the past, a report on the BATTLE grant said.

In 2016, the readers captured 1,661,036 license plates across BATTLE agencies, of which 34,621 resulted in a “hit” requiring further investigation. Of those hits, 1,666 were tied to vehicles or license plates that had been reported stolen, the report said.

In Colorado Springs, the hits led to the recovery of 72 stolen vehicles, 71 felony arrests and 143 misdemeanor arrests, the report said.