License plate readers in Austin will end after privacy concerns

License plate readers will no longer be used in Austin after June.

This comes after community members and the Austin city council expressed concerns about privacy.

License plate readers in Austin

The backstory:

40 cameras are located around Austin and nearly 500 cameras are mounted on vehicles. They are license plate readers.

"It’s an automatic tool that alerts us of criminal activity tied to a particular license plate," Austin Police Association President Michael Bullock said.

Recently, they helped locate the suspects accused of killing InfoWars writer Jamie White. A recent city audit found about 75 million scans resulted in 165 arrests, 133 prosecutions, and one mission person found.

"It is what we would call a force multiplier that really helps us in times when we have low staffing where officers don't have the time to dedicate to just running license plates or looking for one particular individual. We're able to utilize technology to help us be on the lookout in different areas more often than we would be otherwise," Bullock said.

A city audit said, "Legally, if Flock has data that would aid a law enforcement entity in an investigation, they are required to share that information with the requesting entity. That data could then be used for investigations on matters that could include First Amendment activities, reproductive care access, and immigration status."

"We've never been an immigration enforcement authority here at APD and none of our tools are being used for that purpose and there are controls to prevent that from happening as well," Bullock said.

The city manager decided to axe the license plate reader program. After having the program for a little more than a year, it ends at the end of the month. It could be months before the council brings up the topic again.

"It's going to take us longer in order to develop leads and potentially longer to be able to identify suspects or to arrest individuals, which means that the public is going to be in danger for longer," Bullock said. 

Flock responds

"Our philosophy as a company is that we rely on the democratic process. Flock does not decide which criminal codes to enforce. But we are committed to ensuring that every customer can leverage Flock technology in a way that reflects their values. Community safety does not need to come at the expense of community values.

Austin Police Department's LPR program resulted in 165 arrests, approximately 134 prosecutions, and 1 missing/endangered person recovered. It's clear that this technology has contributed to public safety benefit in the city, as reiterated by the Austin Police Department in their presentation earlier this week.

Flock has designed our technology with accountability mechanisms built into the system. Every search that is conducted on an agency's cameras is preserved permanently in an audit trail - enabling oversight and transparency for every search. 

Flock does not have any contracts with ICE or the Department of Homeland Security. Every agency has discretion regarding whether and how they collaborate with the federal government - or other local police departments - on law enforcement investigations. Some agencies choose to work with the federal government, including on complex multi-jurisdictional cases like child trafficking. Others choose not to. This is a choice left entirely up to agencies. Regardless of their decision, if searches are conducted on Flock, the reasons for those searches will be preserved permanently in an audit trail."

You can read the full statement from the CEO here.

Austin City Council members react

The other side:

Jared McClain, an attorney for the Institute for Justice, said it is unconstitutional.

"Before they're intruding into your personal privacy, we have this step where you have to go before a neutral magistrate and, by just giving carte blanche access to all of your information to police at all times, it would make law enforcement easier, but it does so at the cost of our privacy rights," McClain said.

Community members and Austin City Council members expressed their concerns.

"Once the data is collected, it can be accessed by ICE or other departments out of state using Flock's network," District 9 Representative Zo Qadri said.

"What you see now in Austin is people are now realizing, wait, this is kind of creepy, this is kind of creepy that the government just has all of this information about me when we've just sort of been cosigning it by signing these contracts and joining these programs and having our elected representatives in the name of more security, install all these cameras and sign all these contracts with technology companies, AI companies, and then next thing you know, we have no more privacy," McClain said.

"When you just have to rely on the good faith of police to not put this data, to put this information to bad use after they collect it, that's a troubling place to be," McClain added.

What they're saying:

The Austin Police Department released a statement saying:

The Austin Police Department and our community have seen tremendous success with the ALPR program during our one-year trial period. During that period, APD was able to utilize the technology to solve many violent crimes perpetrated against our city. Without question, some of these cases would not have been solved without the ALPR technology. These crimes included, but are not limited to, the following types and areas of our city. 

  • Capital Murder - (78758, 78741, 78724, 78723)
  • Murder - (78753, 78758, 78723, 78731, 78759, 78653, 78745, 78752, 78702, 78704, 78705, 78617)
  • Aggravated Robbery - (78653, 78753, 78617, 78703, 78741, 78723, 78724, 78750, 78758, 78727, 78745, 78744, 78749. 78704, 78752) 
  • Robbery By Assault - (78758, 78702, 78741, 78731, 78735, 78613) 
  • Burglary of Residence - (78757) 
  • Aggravated Assault - (78758, 78653, 78753, 78746, 78723) 
  • Sex Crimes - (78704, 78703) 
  • Fail to Stop and Render Aid - (78701) 
  • Arson - (78753) 
  • Auto Theft - 176 cases (Various Zip Codes)

Note – Zip codes above may represent more than one event.   

At no time did the APD share any ALPR data with ICE. The APD has always been committed to responsible and equitable use of the ALPR technology, and the audit, which was completed by the City of Austin auditor, exemplified this commitment. Moreover, the resolution of the City of Austin prohibited the use of ALPR technology for this purpose, and the APD built an extremely robust and limited sharing policy to ensure this did not happen. During the period the ALPR was used, data was shared eight times externally. In each case, the data was shared, and the procedures around sharing were followed and in line with the resolution. 

What's next:

It’s unclear what will happen to the cameras – whether they will stay installed or be disconnected.

The Source: Information from interviews conducted by FOX 7 Austin's Meredith Aldis

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