Get AI Briefings, Transcripts & Alerts on Local & National Government Meetings — Forever.
Ogden police detail ALPR program, internal controls and 30-day data retention
Loading...
Summary
Ogden Police presented the department's automated license plate reader (ALPR) program at a Jan. 20 work session, describing 41 cameras citywide (32 focused in a Project Safe Neighborhoods zone), internal 30-day rolling retention of plate reads, access controls routed through the ATAC director and audit procedures. Council asked about federal access and transparency portals.
Ogden 'On Jan. 20, Chief of Police briefed the Ogden City Council on the police department's automated license plate reader (ALPR) program, outlining its history, current deployment and the department's controls for access, retention and auditing.
The chief said the program began with vehicle-mounted readers in 2008 and grew into a fixed-camera system in 2020 as part of a Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) initiative. The department currently reports 41 ALPR cameras citywide: 32 inside the PSN zone (one temporarily down), eight installed in the BDO area through a cost-sharing agreement with Boyer company, and one mobile unit used for targeted, data-driven deployments.
Why it exists: "Criminals don't care about boundaries," the chief told council, describing ALPRs as an investigative "tool" that helps identify stolen vehicles, wanted people and leads for violent and drug distribution cases. He cited multiple instances in which ALPR hits were instrumental, including an interstate kidnapping recovery and homicide and hit-and-run investigations that yielded potential suspect vehicles.
Retention and access: The chief said state law requires agencies to publish written policies and limits retention; the law also allows preservation of data beyond statutory retention only by warrant or court order. Ogden maintains a stricter internal practice than the state minimum: a rolling 30-day retention for plate reads, while lookup logs and search records are retained and auditable per state requirements. "Our system has a rolling 30 days of license plates. At day 31, it disappears," he said.
The department limits who can query the system. Searches and lookups are funneled through an Area Tactical Analysis Center (ATAC) director or sergeants; officers cannot run arbitrary searches from patrol. The chief described confirmation requirements before enforcement (for example, visually verifying the plate image and confirming an active warrant) and said professional-standards staff perform spot checks and that a full audit is scheduled every two years with more frequent spot checks in between.
Interagency sharing and federal requests: Council members raised concerns about federal agencies and vendor-level "national lookup" features. The chief said federal agencies (FBI, ATF, DEA, ICE, HSI) do not have direct access to Ogden's ALPR reads. Instead, federal agencies must submit a case-specific request with a case number/CAD call and a crime type; Ogden decides whether to cooperate. The chief said Ogden has mutual sharing with roughly 32 state agencies but that any external access must meet state law and policy standards. He also committed to verifying with system vendors whether any third-party settings could enable broader queries and to report back to council.
Auditing and transparency: The department said it conducts spot audits and an ongoing audit of ALPR searches; a dedicated audit/inspector within professional standards oversees compliance. Council members pointed to transparency portals used in other cities; the chief said he had no objection to exploring a public-facing ALPR transparency tool and that the city is building a broader dashboard that could incorporate ALPR summaries.
Limits and safeguards: The chief emphasized technical limits in the system: "They do not have biometrics. There is no facial recognition. There is no live monitoring. There is no video recording," he said, adding that most reads capture only rear plates and vehicle descriptors (color, make, approximate year) and that inadvertent images of occupants are possible but rare.
Next steps: The chief invited follow-up questions and said the department would verify vendor settings about national lookups and report back to council. Council members asked for additional detail on average yearly lookup volumes and on how auditing would sample searches across multi-year periods.
Ending: The presentation concluded with council appreciation for the department's work and a reminder that staff would provide follow-up on specific vendor and audit-volume questions.
