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Redmond moves data-governance policy for ALPR and drones to consent after council backs 30‑day retention
Summary
The committee reviewed a draft police data governance policy for ALPR and drone use; chiefs clarified access rules (queries must be tied to a valid case number), exceptions for active investigations, and that data deleted at 30 days is permanent. Council took a thumbs poll favoring a 30‑day retention period and moved the policy to the Dec. 3 consent calendar.
Chief Lowe and Captain David Pointe presented a draft data governance policy for the Redmond Police Department covering Automated License Plate Readers (ALPR) and drones. The packet answered questions from July and included a draft policy intended for public posting and inclusion in the department's policy manual.
Chief Lowe said any query of the ALPR system must be associated with a valid case number, which prevents random, unauthorised searches. He described an ongoing-investigation exception where the specific data point tied to a case is retained while unrelated data in the same time/location 'bucket' is deleted on the normal schedule.
Council members debated the appropriate retention window. Vice President Forsyth and others argued for a shorter retention period (14 days) to limit data storage. Chief Lowe and several council members said 30 days is the industry standard, allows time for interagency coordination and warranting processes, and provides investigative value; Council member Stewart and President Kritzer supported 30 days. Chief Lowe confirmed that deletion at the 30-day mark is permanent and that the policy will later be subsumed by an enterprise-wide data governance policy once the city CTO finishes that work.
Councilors also discussed keeping a closing sentence (number 18 in the matrix) as a policy reminder; staff agreed to retain it. The committee took a thumbs poll that favored 30 days and agreed to move the policy to the Dec. 3 consent calendar for full council consideration.
