APD touts early successes of license plate reader program

The Public Safety Commission was briefed Monday on some early results of the license plate reader program that rolled out in March with cameras at undisclosed sites across the city.

The Austin Police Department credits the cameras for the 40 arrests patrol officers made for stolen vehicles and the 20 stolen vehicles recovered with no arrests. Additionally, police investigators identified and arrested two murder suspects and one aggravated robbery suspect, APD said. The use of the cameras also generated nine leads in other felony cases.

The LPR program’s 40 cameras, geographically distributed across Austin, went live in March. APD retains the captured data for seven days, which the department says is the shortest retention period of any law enforcement agency in the country. City Council added the seven-day rule in response to local controversy regarding the program.

All sworn personnel are expected to be trained on the cameras’ software by the end of this month.

“I’m excited to see some success coming from (the program), especially as somebody who was somewhat skeptical of the process,” vice chair Timothy Ruttan said. He asked for APD to return next month with some “balancing measures” that would show the number of police stops that did not result in an arrest or recovered vehicle.

Commissioner Yasmine Smith also asked for demographic data on the people stopped by police.

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