Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Public Safety Alpr topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Police present plan to consolidate license-plate reader systems, citing higher read rates
Summary
Deputy Chief Mike Fosmo briefed council on a plan to move the city's license-plate-reader services to a Genitech platform with an integrated video-management system, saying testing shows 'upwards of 66% in our reads' and that budgeted funds are in place with a modest incremental cost for VMS integration.
Deputy Chief Mike Fosmo told the council on Sept. 9 that police have been testing a Genitech automatic license-plate reader (ALPR) platform and recommend consolidating existing systems into that vendor and adding a video-management system.
Fosmo said the department’s testing produced higher read performance and that use cases include locating wanted persons, stolen vehicles and missing people. "We've been testing this Genitech product for the last several months and we're just having a much more efficient return on our services ... upwards of 66% in our reads for license plate technology," he said.
Staff told the council that budgeted funds from prior years (for Motorola Solutions and Flock Safety) are in place and that the incremental $5,000–$5,600 reflected in the staff report is for a video-management system to integrate cameras and ALPR data. Fosmo said the system also offers potential integration with parks, businesses and other camera sources to streamline citywide video and plate data.
Why this matters: ALPR systems can help police investigations but raise privacy and civil-liberty concerns in some communities. The council received a technical briefing but the study-session transcript does not include a recorded approval vote; staff framed the request as a funding and vendor change using already budgeted dollars.
Next steps: Staff presented the purchase request for council consideration and fielded brief clarifying questions; no formal appropriation or contract award is recorded in the study-session transcript.
