The city of Bellevue might soon be getting license plate reading cameras.
Police Chief Jon McClain and a representative from the vendor, Flock Safety, presented on their possible use and cost during an April 9 council meeting.
“License plate reading cameras are not necessarily designed to catch live feed or images of people or anything like that,” said McClain. “Their main goal is to recognize license plates on vehicles and then stamp who the owner is, it’s like a fingerprint — the system can pinpoint makes, models and years of cars and things like that.”
He gave an example of how having such a system could have helped his department. In February, there was an incident of a hit-and-run with a scooter on Fairfield Avenue. McClain noted that the suspect might not have been found if his coworker had not identified him.
“Having cameras, it would have logged that license plate,” said McClain. “And then if, for some reason, the license plate wasn’t legible, it would have been able to log this type of Buick SUV. And it would have narrowed down our search.”
The system could also alert police if a stolen vehicle enters the city. For example, he said, if Newport had information on a vehicle involved in a burglary or a car theft, they could put the data into the system, and it would alert Bellevue to watch for that vehicle.
The issue of privacy
The chief explained that the system must follow clear guidelines to protect privacy. An officer cannot access the system and look up where someone’s car is going. There are clear parameters about how and when the data can be accessed.
“We want this to be a tool, not something that’s continuously tracking what everybody’s doing,” said McClain. “That’s not the intent of it. We surely wouldn’t use it that way, because this all falls under rules of CJIS, which is the Criminal Justice Information System, and there’s some pretty stiff penalties for people to violate those.”
In his presentation, Flock Safety representative Jonathan Paz explained how data is stored in the system and how it can be used.
“The data is yours for 30 days on a rolling basis,” Paz said. “It’s hard to delete, so unless the data is being used as part of the criminal investigation, it will be deleted in the system. And you can’t just go into the system and search what your neighbor’s doing. You need a search reason and any search in the system is part of an indefinitely available audit trail. So we do take security as something very important, and also provide accountability mechanisms in the system.”
The company provides a transparency portal that would go on the city’s website. It would show how the system works and how it is being used and not being used, he added.
Details of the system
License plate readers have been around for more than 30 years, but they have been cost-prohibitive for many police departments, Paz said. New technology has made them much more affordable.
“We’re talking about today’s license plate readers,” said Paz. “It just takes a snapshot of the back of a car and takes stock of number one, the license plate and number two, the vehicular fingerprint. The distinguishable characteristics of the car becomes objective data, and that’s integrated with the National Crime Information Center. So you’re getting these real-time alerts, and typically under 30 seconds. If someone is driving a stolen vehicle, if there’s a missing person, if someone with a felony is coming to your jurisdiction, you get that alert in real time.”
Paz walked through slides outlining what the system entails and what it can and cannot do.
The system uses machine learning technology to allow officers to search vehicles based on unique criteria, including make, body type, color, the presence of racks and temporary tags or license plates.
McClain noted that the system is solar, so the cameras would not need to be mounted on poles with electricity. There would also be no need to obtain special permissions from property owners or Duke. The cameras could be placed on city property wherever they were needed.
A system for Bellevue
McClain laid out a plan for a system in Bellevue. He said he would ask for eight cameras at most.
“We would have to have two cameras for each intersection if we wanted to fairly accurately capture the vehicles coming into the city and leaving,” said McClain. “I would have two in the area of Fairfield and Riviera, two in the area of Donnermeyer and Sixth going into Newport. Then there are two up on Memorial, getting cars coming in and out, as well as two on Covert Run.”
He said he did not include the intersection of O’Fallon and Fairfield, as Dayton has two cameras from Flock Safety placed there, so the cities would share that information. If the program is successful, he said, he would look at adding cameras at Poplar and O’Fallon to have all the data necessary to “seal up” the city.
McClain explained the cameras would be leased. For the eight cameras for two years, the cost would be $53,200. Each camera costs $3,000 to lease annually. The additional amount would cover the initial installation costs.
Flock Safety would cover maintenance and any replacement down the line as part of the contract, he said. McClain noted that some businesses in the area that would benefit directly from the cameras may be willing to help offset some of the costs.