Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Lpr Technical topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
How Culpeper’s license‑plate reader system works: vendors, cloud storage and security controls
Summary
Culpeper officials described vendor selection (Flock, Axon), cloud storage on AWS GovCloud, role‑based access with multifactor authentication, and auditing requirements; they said vendors can be criminally liable for unlawful retention and the department controls access by contract and state code.
Town‑hall presenters walked residents through how the Culpeper Police Department procures and secures LPR data and why the department uses cloud vendors rather than local on‑premises servers. Chief Chris Settle and LPR coordinator Michelle Walzick explained that primary LPR vendor data are stored on AWS GovCloud and that search access is role‑based and requires multifactor authentication; Settle said vendor contracts and state code control third‑party access.
Residents asked whether vendors or private owners could access or retain images beyond the statutory limit. Settle said the state code and contract language prohibit vendors from retaining or selling Virginia LPR data beyond 21 days for non‑evidentiary images; he also said that vendors perform industry audits such as SOC 2 and ISO certifications. Michelle described daily internal auditing and that every query is logged and audited. "I actually don't adjust the confidence level at all," Michelle said, explaining operational defaults and how analysts run searches within a case context. The presentation also distinguished private/commercial cameras (HOA, retailers) — those systems collect images for property owners and are not governed by the same search capabilities or statutory limits as law‑enforcement LPRs.
