Apex council sends automated license-plate reader policy to public safety committee after chiefs update

Police Chief Ryan Johansson told the Apex Town Council on Monday evening that the towns automated license-plate reader (ALPR) system is a public-safety tool that has helped investigators and yielded "alerts" in hundreds of incidents since alerts were enabled in December 2025.

Johansson, who said the department limits image retention to 30 days although state law allows up to 90, described how the fixed cameras capture rear license-plate images, generate immediate alerts for stolen vehicles and entries on criminal hot lists, and produce a searchable database investigators may use for case-specific searches. He said the department currently has seven installed cameras, three flex cameras planned, and averages roughly 60,000 plate reads per day, which produced about 1,700 hot-list hits in the programs first months.

"If a crew comes in from out of town in a stolen vehicle planning to break into a bunch of houses or vehicles in Apex and that car is stolen," Johansson said, "this system, if it passes a camera, will tell us that and we can do something about it rather than receiving your call in the morning." He also described cases the department says were aided by ALPR data: multi-jurisdictional ATM jackpotting investigations, stolen-truck recoveries tied to commercial burglaries, arrests of suspects with outstanding felony warrants, and missing-person alerts.

Council members pressed Johansson on privacy protections, data-sharing rules and vendor arrangements. Johansson acknowledged two recent, inadvertent approvals of data sharing with federal entities (a U.S. Postal Inspector request and a military police request), which his office canceled; he said the vendor is now configured to block federal entities from requesting data. He also described internal auditing, supervisory approval for custom hot-list entries, a civilian office of professional standards oversight role, and an online transparency portal that staff customized to comply with North Carolina statutory limits on what may be published.

Residents and privacy advocates who addressed council during public forum urged stricter limits or termination of the contract with the private vendor used for ALPR data services. Fran Hudson told the council that she believes the cameras implicate constitutional privacy rights; others pressed the council to write binding policy rather than rely on departmental choices.

Councilman Gray moved to refer further policy development and updates on the ALPR program to the councils public safety committee so the committee could examine retention, sharing, vendor options and audit procedures. The council unanimously approved the referral and directed staff to set a committee meeting, with staff indicating August as a likely starting point and the current vendor contract term coming up in January.

The referral requires the public safety committee to return policy recommendations and vendor research to the full council before the towns January decision point on the pilot contract extension.

What happens next: the public safety committee will review policy language, audit logs and vendor alternatives and provide a recommendation to council. The police department said it will continue operating the pilot and provide a fuller data report in January, as requested by council.