Detective: ALPR lead helped identify vehicle in Ferndale homicide; police emphasize private video and detective work alongside ALPR

At a community conversation, Detective Matt Goble described how Ferndale investigators combined private surveillance video and an automatic license plate reader (ALPR) hit to develop a suspect vehicle in the fatal shooting of Mamadou Diallo. Goble said detectives began with a White Castle receipt and business video, identified a pickup truck of interest, and the ALPR hit provided a license-plate lead that narrowed the investigation and helped detectives obtain warrants and arrests.

Goble emphasized that ALPR images are still photographs of license plates and vehicles, not continuous high-definition video or facial-recognition footage. "All we get is a photograph," he said. Staff repeatedly noted that much of the investigatory footage came from private-camera systems and that detectives invested many hours poring over multiple sources of video to reconstruct the sequence of events.

When asked whether ALPR evidence was used in court, Goble said the judge admitted the Flock image and the defense did not object in that prosecution. Members of the public asked whether investigators could have solved the case without ALPR; staff acknowledged some investigative steps could have been completed without the plate-reader lead but argued ALPR substantially narrowed the field of possible vehicles and reduced search time across numerous private video sources.

The department framed ALPR as an investigative tool that, when combined with conventional detective work and subpoenas for private video, can produce actionable leads. At the same meeting, the department announced it has severed its contract with vendor Flock Safety and will vet other ALPR vendors; staff said they intend to preserve operational safeguards such as access limits for approved users and visual confirmation/LEIN checks before a stop.