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Police committee says proposed centralization of license-plate-reader data pulled after privacy questions
Summary
Committee members raised concerns about retention and sharing of license-plate-reader (LPR) data; the crime-analysis center withdrew a plan to centralize LPR feeds after town questions about retention and third-party access, and the department removed that item from the agenda pending alternative approaches.
The Police Public Safety Committee heard on Feb. 5 that a planned effort to centralize license-plate-reader data across agencies was withdrawn after county and town officials raised questions about data retention and sharing.
Chief Twitty told the committee the crime-analysis center had proposed aggregating LPR feeds from multiple vendors into a searchable database, but that the plan left open questions about who would keep the data and with whom it could be shared. He said he discussed those concerns with town counsel and with Todd Weiss, the head of the crime-analysis center, and that Weiss "withdrew" the effort from participating agencies after the questions were raised.
The item had been on the department's agenda but was removed, Chief Twitty said, because the proposal relied on an outside third party and offered unclear protections for retention and downstream sharing. Committee members and several residents who met previously with Sergeant Munger had asked how the department obtains and retains LPR information and who can access it.
Twitty said agencies use different LPR vendors and that centralizing the data would require standardization and clear legal and retention safeguards before it could proceed. He described the withdrawal as a pause to let officials explore alternatives that preserve investigatory value while addressing privacy and interagency-control concerns.
The committee did not adopt a formal policy at the meeting. Chief Twitty said staff will follow up with counsel and with the crime-analysis center about alternative approaches and safeguards for any future proposal.
