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Aberdeen pauses decision on state-run license-plate readers after council questions on data access
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Summary
Council members postponed action after Chief Chaddell described a state Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) license-plate-reader program that would install two fixed cameras locally; questions centered on who owns and can query the data and how long records are retained.
Chief Chaddell told the council the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation is expanding a license-plate-reader (LPR) program and asked the city to authorize an electronic-use agreement that would allow DCI to install two fixed cameras in the region and use city power to operate them. Chaddell said the system, run through Vigilant Solutions and DCI, automatically reads plates and compares them to ‘hot lists’ such as stolen vehicles and that the city would not retain the data.
Council members raised privacy and access concerns, asking who owns the collected images, how long they would be archived, and whether the records would be subpoenaable. Chaddell said the data are retained by Vigilant Solutions under DCI’s agreement and that LPR queries would require articulable reasonable suspicion tied to an investigation. He said the city has no direct access to the historic data and agreed to ask DCI for retention and access specifics.
Councilman (speaker 10) moved to postpone consideration so staff could return with more information; the motion to table carried on a voice vote. The mayor confirmed staff will gather details about data ownership, retention periods and the protocol for queries before the council takes further action.
