License plate reading cameras becoming more common in Iowa

While the attention of Iowa motorists and state lawmakers has been focused on the use of speed cameras in some cities, a different kind of automated law enforcement camera has started to pop up across the state.

Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) cameras scan license plates and run them through police databases to search for reports of stolen vehicles, arrest warrants and missing people. The cameras can make law enforcement’s work more efficient, but they’ve also raised concerns about privacy.

The University of Iowa installed 28 license plate reader cameras around campus in April, and the city of Marshalltown in October approved the purchase of 32 cameras, which will be installed in 2024. The Cedar Rapids Police Department has had license plate reader cameras attached to two of its squad cars since 2016.

How do license plate reader cameras work?

The cameras are designed to scan license plates on all cars that drive by and run them through police databases, then ping officers if anything comes up. The technology alerts police if it finds a car or license plate that has been reported stolen, or if it scans a vehicle that’s connected with someone who has a warrant out for their arrest. It also will alert police if it detects a license plate connected to an Amber Alert or other search.

“The LPRs are only doing what officers are already able to do in their squad, but it’s keeping officers from having to run a mobile data center at the same time as their driving,” said Mike Battien, the Cedar Rapids public safety communications director.

“So, it’s a safety measure for the police as well. It keeps officers focused on the job until they get an actual return from the LPR system, and then they can engage with it.”

The technology also saves to a database the footage of passing cars and the data the cameras collect about each car that passes. The data include the license plate number, make and model of the car, and the location and time that it was seen. Law enforcement can use that database if they’re looking for a specific car in relation to an investigation, pinpointing the time it was seen passing a camera.

“It allows you to search by make and model, so if you know the make and model, you don't just have to sit and watch hours of video until you see the vehicle. You can actually find it a little more efficiently,” said Kiel Stevenson, the police captain in charge of the Marshalltown Police Department’s support services division and investigative unit. “So, it's really just utilizing the technology as a force multiplier, to save time for officers.”

The license plate reader databases don’t hold onto footage and data indefinitely. Flock Safety — the Atlanta-based company that contracted with the University of Iowa and will be contracting with Marshalltown to install and maintain its cameras — deletes data from its cameras after 30 days. The Cedar Rapids Police Department’s two cameras were purchased from Vigilant, a California-based company. It deletes data after 180 days.

Privacy concerns

The ability of license plate reader cameras to track where someone has been through a database has raised concerns among some groups about privacy and the potential for misuse of the cameras and the data they produce.

The Iowa Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has issued a statement on the use of automatic license plate readers in which it encourages law enforcement agencies to have strict codes of conduct surrounding the use of the cameras.

“Police departments nationwide are using (automatic license plate readers) to quietly accumulate millions of plate records, storing them in back end databases. We want to make sure that Iowa law enforcement is not violating the privacy rights of Iowa citizens,” the statement reads, adding that the cameras are “a technology deployed with too few rules. They are becoming a tool for mass routine location tracking and surveillance.”

The ACLU also created a model department policy that it recommends to Iowa law enforcement agencies that use license plate cameras. The policy recommends data on scanned license plates only be kept for seven days.

The policy also includes stipulations that only officers who are trained in the use of license plate readers and the policies associated with them should have access to scan data, and that it should only be used for legitimate law enforcement purposes. This would mean data can’t be used for personal purposes, for harassment or intimidation, or for any reason related to a protected characteristic like race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, political affiliation or disability. This would be enforced by giving each authorized officer a unique login to access the scan data, so that the system can record who accesses what information and when.

ACLU’s model policy also states that officers shouldn’t stop a car based only on a notification from the license plate cameras, but that they should first verify that the status of the car reported by the license plate reader — whether it’s stolen or connected to a warrant or search — still is accurate, and that the camera read the license plate correctly.

Some of these stipulations — like those outlining what purposes the cameras can and can’t be used for — are found in the Cedar Rapids and University of Iowa official policies for use of automated license plate readers. The University of Iowa policy states that employees will access the system with a unique login, and they must enter a valid reason for accessing the data when they log in, according to the university’s FAQ page about the cameras.

“Any possible misuse of the system would result in disciplinary action, up to an including termination of employment or possible criminal charges, if applicable,” the website states.

The Cedar Rapids policy states that the program administrator for the cameras must submit a license plate reader usage report to the criminal investigative division and patrol commanders every month that outlines the uses of the cameras, data purging information, data dissemination information and procedure compliance.

The Marshalltown Police Department still is working on finalizing its official usage policy for the cameras before they are installed next year, Stevenson said.

Effectiveness of license plate readers

From the time the 28 license plate readers were installed at the University of Iowa in April, to the end of October, they helped in the recovery of 10 stolen vehicles, the location of eight missing or endangered people and the arrest of more than 40 fugitives, according to Hayley Bruce, the public information officer for University of Iowa Police.

One of those arrests was of a suspect that another agency was looking for in relation to a homicide case. The cameras were also used to make arrests for vehicle burglaries, the violation of a protective order and other crimes, Bruce said.

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“This technology has already provided our department with critical evidence to help solve crimes and maintain campus safety,” she said.

The two squad car license plate readers in Cedar Rapids helped the department make 67 warrant-related arrests between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30 this year. They also led to 11 recoveries of stolen cars or plates. In order to do that, the cameras scanned more than 1.4 million license plates in that nine-month span, according to the Cedar Rapids Police Department.

Stevenson said that the Marshalltown Police Department began looking into the license plate cameras because of conversations it had with other departments that used and recommended them.

“We were somewhat familiar with Flock. We’d heard of it before, but we started talking to other communities about how much they liked it or their success rates with it. Then we started evaluating that process and, through our research, we determined that that was going to be more beneficial to our overall goal of public safety than our current system,” Stevenson said.

Marshalltown will pay $210,000 to launch its automated license plate reader program. The funds will come from revenue generated through the city’s Automated Traffic Enforcement program, which was established in 2017 and placed traffic cameras throughout the city.

Comments: (319) 398-8328; emily.andersen@thegazette.com