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An update on the Austin Police Department’s reinstated Automated License Plate Reader program confirmed that all 40 cameras are installed and functioning. After a hiatus, the readers controversially returned after much public debate, and the new program went live at the end of March as a one-year pilot program. In July, then-Chief Joseph Chacon clarified that data from the cameras would be purged after seven days, unless downloaded for an investigation or as part of a missing or endangered persons situation. According to the Aug. 30 update, all officers using the reader system must undergo training on an annual basis.

 

Elizabeth Pagano is the editor of the Austin Monitor.