AUSTIN (KXAN)– Auditors today asked for the city to update the regards to its Automated License Plate Reader program to clarify how long data is kept and limit who can access it. The discussion happened simply days before the Austin Common Council is to think about the program’s future.
At Tuesday’s Public Security Payment meeting, participants heard the outcomes of an audit analyzing the Austin Authorities Department’s APLR pilot program from March 2024 to March 2025
The audit stated the city’s 40 fixed cams and the 500 cams attached to Austin Police vehicles made an estimated 75 million scans of certificate plates.
The city’s suppliers for ALPRs are Flock Safety And Security and Axon. Referrals from the audit claimed the language in the city’s agreement with Flock is too obscure and “potentially extensive.”
Safety commissioners examined for how long vendors save that data. The initial terms detailed that Austin’s program would certainly save the data for 7 days, however the audit figured out vendors can preserve that information.
Accessibility to that data has come into question in current months as migration and expulsion initiatives have risen under the Trump administration. Critics of ALPRs have accused neighborhood police of sharing data with Migration and Traditions Enforcement.
APD Sergeant Lee Knouse replied to commissioners’ questions about ICE’s accessibility to APD’s data. He claimed information collected by ALPRs is only accessible to APD.
“When a network manager explores Group, we can see that has browsed our electronic cameras, what they’re looking for, when they search for it, if an ICE agent or an outdoors representative was accessing our video cameras. We do not supply accessibility to APD information to any person beyond APD personnel that’s been through our training,” Knouse said.
The audit discussion will certainly be made again to Austin City Council members at their workshop on Wednesday. The city council is expected to vote on the program’s future at its normal Thursday meeting