The debate over continued use of Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) technology by the Austin Police Department is once again facing intense pushback at City Hall from community organizations, prompting City Manager T.C. Broadnax to delay a vote on reauthorizing the mass surveillance program.
At their June 5 meeting, City Council was set to vote on reauthorizing APD’s use of the technology, but Broadnax pulled the item from the agenda following Council’s June 3 work session where Council members questioned the trade-offs of allowing APD to use the technology amid growing concerns around how it could be exploited by state and federal law enforcement agencies – especially by Immigration and Customs Enforcement while conducting mass deportations.
The city’s contract with one of the vendors that has supplied APD with ALPRs, Flock, is set to expire at the end of June. Unless Council votes to extend the contract before then – which, at this point, is unlikely – APD will have to cease using Flock’s ALPR hardware and software.
ALPRs utilize hundreds of cameras installed in fixed positions throughout the city and mounted on police vehicles to automatically snap photos of vehicle license plates. The license plate images are all stored in a database operated by Flock, one of the vendors the city has contracted with for the program, along with date, time, and location associated with each photo. All this data sticks around for seven days to assist officers with specific types of criminal investigations.
Chief of Police Lisa Davis and Assistant Chief Sheldon “Scott” Askew were on hand at Council’s June 3 work session to offer a vigorous defense of the technology, which justice, immigration, and privacy advocates have described as a mass surveillance tool that could be exploited by state and federal law enforcement officials to assist with actions that the people of Austin generally oppose, like deportations.
“Council put together some of the strongest ALPR guardrails in the nation. [But] in this new political era … guardrails are not going to work.” – Council Member Mike Siegel
But police officials insist that use of the technology has helped investigators solve serious crimes amid a shortage of patrol officers at the department. Askew said that ALPR technology had been utilized by investigators to solve a range of crimes like murder, assault, and robbery. Later, however, Askew admitted that it was difficult to say precisely how vital a role ALPRs played in solving any of the crimes he described.
“It’s very difficult to quantify,” Askew said. “There’s certainly going to be cases where ALPR played a significant piece in establishing probable cause and, more importantly, identifying a suspect.”
But concerns around misuse of the system, or about how the data could be used by third parties, persist among some Council members.
At multiple points during the ALPR pilot period, one out of five searches conducted by officers of the vast license plate database were done without any clearly documented reason or justification, according to new data shared by APD.
In an email sent by Assistant Chief Askew to multiple City Council aides late last Monday evening that was obtained by the Chronicle, Askew reveals that in the second quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025, more than 20% of searches did not have a case number attached nor a clear reason for the search. In Q3 and Q4 of 2024, 11% and 16% of searches similarly lacked any clear justification.
Council prohibited APD from using the technology in 2020 but renewed its use through a pilot in 2023 after adding guardrails intended to protect Austinites’ privacy. That included limiting ALPR use to investigations of crimes like vehicle theft, human trafficking, and other more serious crimes. The APD General Order written to outline proper use of the ALPR program states that any department personnel authorized to use the tool should receive annual training on the “appropriate use and collection of ALPR data” which should “emphasize the requirement to document the reason for the inquiry.”
The end of the pilot period came with an independent report conducted by the Office of the City Auditor, which was presented to Council’s Audit & Finance Committee on May 19. The report did not include any of the findings indicating that some ALPR searches were conducted in violation of department policy. It is unclear at this point why the searches were conducted, because APD has declined to share that information with Council offices and OCA. (In his June 2 email, Askew says the information could harm active criminal investigations.)
In his email, Askew appeared to acknowledge the improper use of the ALPR database and that the department was taking steps to address the problem. “[APD] recognizes the importance of transparency in the usage of the ALPR system,” Askew wrote, adding that the department was working with Flock to update the system so that officers are required to input a case number and a reason for the search whenever it is accessed. “Despite not being required by resolution or policy,” Askew also wrote, “the majority of officers are still inputting a case number in the search inquiries.”
There’s another issue. Council mandated that APD could not store the data for more than seven days, but the audit revealed that the agreement with Flock allowed extended storage, and even sharing data with other law enforcement agencies. APD was aware of the language when the contract was signed but told the city’s Law Department that, in their view, the language was acceptable. At the June 3 meeting, Askew said he had met with Flock and the city’s lawyers numerous times to amend the language.
Concerns around how ALPRs could be used to assist with federal deportations have also been a major concern for ALPR skeptics. Last week, 404 Media published a story showing how ICE has accessed ALPR databases in local jurisdictions across the nation to assist with deportations.
Askew said that reports like this are not applicable to Austin, because those jurisdictions do not have the kind of guardrails in place like Austin does to restrict how ALPR data is shared. Still, APD would not be able to defy a request from state or federal agencies seeking ALPR data, he said. Askew repeatedly insisted that, to this point, ICE has not requested ALPR data from APD.
Still, some CMs – including Mike Siegel – remain opposed to allowing APD to continue using ALPRs. “In 2023, Council put together some of the strongest ALPR guardrails in the nation,” Siegel told the Chronicle on June 3. “It’s now clear, however, in this new political era in which citizens are being deported and dissidents are being detained, guardrails are not going to work.”
This article appears in June 13 • 2025.