Cops can keep license plate information for 7 days under new agreement

City Council voted 9-1 on Thursday to move forward with funding for an automated license plate reader contract, specifically authorizing the Austin Police Department to hold on to data for just seven days.

The police department had argued in favor of 30 days. There was insufficient support on Council for that amount of time when members voted on it last week.

Council Member Ryan Alter sponsored the resolution, along with Chito Vela, Vanessa Fuentes and José Velásquez. Council Member Leslie Pool did not participate in Thursday’s meeting, because she was traveling on city business. Alter insisted on seven days rather than the 30 days preferred by police.

Council Member Zo Qadri voted against the resolution, as well as a second item authorizing city management to negotiate and execute a contract for license plate reader camera systems and services with Insight Public Sector Inc. for up to five years. Council did not appropriate the entire amount of the five-year contract, since they only budget for one year at a time. A five-year total contract amount was listed on the Council agenda as $1,090,000.

Qadri said in a statement after the vote, “Before Council discontinued the original (automated license plate reader) program after the violent crackdown on protests against police brutality in the summer of 2020, APD scanned more than 20 million plates a year with a hit rate of just over one tenth of one percent. Public safety is paramount, but we should also always be mindful of our constitutional rights to privacy.

“I agree with the ACLU, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the Brennan Center for Justice that this technology can be misused or abused, compromising the personal data of countless people who are not connected to any crime. In the end, the safeguards built into the program Council approved today simply weren’t robust enough to earn my support.”

Following the vote, the Austin Monitor asked Assistant Police Chief Jeff Greenwalt whether seven days would be enough time to test the license plate data program. He said, “We will solve some crimes within seven days, but it won’t be as beneficial as 30 days. So some crimes will go unsolved because of that disparity. We hope to be able to document those differences and bring it back to Council for them to reconsider the potential period.”

Greenwalt said he hoped it would take less than a year to gather that data.

It is not clear exactly how long it will take to negotiate the contract and get cameras and other equipment set up and operating, but the program will initially operate as a pilot. The original proposal would have extended the program through Fiscal Year 2023-24. After that, the program would cease to exist unless extended by Council.

Council Member Mackenzie Kelly, who argued strenuously last week for a 30-day retention period, offered an amendment to operate the program for a yearlong period from the beginning of implementation. Kelly has indicated that will ensure a sufficient test period.

The resolution adopted Thursday offered some regulations to ensure that there is proper monitoring of the program and that drivers who are members of minority groups are not specifically targeted.

The rules for operating license plate readers include the following examples:

“The Auto Theft Interdiction Unit will manage the ALPR program. The Chief Security Officer is the Sergeant of the Auto Theft Unit. (b) Operators encountering problems with ALPR equipment or programs will notify the Chief Security Officer.

“The Chief Security Officer will work with the Police Technology Unit (PTU) and Research and Planning to ensure all permanent ALPR cameras are located at various points throughout the city to ensure the deployment of permanent ALPR cameras will not be placed in places more likely to target any group or segment of our community disproportionately.

“The Department shall retain all ALPR data related to an endangered person, missing person, or criminal investigation for a period consistent with the City Code, Chapter 2-11, and any applicable City Records Control Schedules and/or the State Local Government Retention Schedules.

“The Risk Management Unit will conduct audits of the ALPR system. They will present the audit results to the Chief of Police or their designee, which may be public information as allowed by law. At minimum: (a) The Risk Management Unit will perform a quarterly random audit of the system to ensure compliance with policies and procedures.”

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.

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