But the system also has issued alerts about potentially stolen vehicles that were not actually stolen.
Police, however, say this isn’t a big issue since officers can easily check to confirm whether the information in the alerts is accurate, and technical issues with the system hopefully will be fixed soon.
But Julio Mateo, a member of the Coalition on Public Protection, said Dayton police should be transparent and share information with the community showing how often officers stop people for bogus alerts or “false alarms” and what happened during those encounters.
“I think this would help everyone,” he said. “I think this would help police be more effective and it would safeguard human rights and civil liberties.”
On about Aug. 12, the Dayton Police Department activated automated license plate readers in about 115 police cruisers.
The cameras went live several weeks after the Dayton City Commission voted 3 to 2 to allow police to use the technology.
The technology is controversial.
Police and some business leaders and community members say the readers are a useful law enforcement tool that can help recover stolen vehicles and solve other serious crimes.
Some community members have raised concerns about privacy and how the data the readers collect are used and stored and contend the devices could contribute to overpolicing.
Dayton police’s cameras are not yet fully functioning, and so far they have only been used to provide alerts about stolen vehicles, Saunders said.
The readers scanned 1,824,880 plates in roughly their first four weeks of operation.
Saunders said the in-car systems have generated about 616 alerts to officers about potentially stolen vehicles in their first month of use.
But Saunders said most of the hits were not actually stolen vehicles.
The readers currently can only scan the plate numbers and cannot differentiate between plates from Ohio and from other U.S. states, he said.
The police department is working with the state to address technical issues with the system. Police officials say they hope the readers will soon be able to compare plate numbers to information in the Ohio law enforcement automated data system (LEADS).
Saunders said officers do not initiate traffic stops based on alerts alone.
Police can easily and immediately check to see if the information in the alerts match information in a national crime database, he said.
Even though the system is not fully functioning, the cameras still have helped identify and recover seven stolen vehicles, Saunders said.
He also said that Dayton police have used information from plate readers in neighboring jurisdictions to help recover another 10 stolen vehicles.
Saunders said the plate readers’ full features are still being rolled out.
Automated license plate readers take pictures that are put into a database that police can search based on vehicles’ makes, models, colors and license plates.
Other searchable features include the state the license plates were issued, the presence of roof racks or bumper stickers and whether the vehicles were missing plates.
The police department’s automated license plate reader policy says that footage from the devices will be retained for 30 days.
Mateo, with the Coalition on Public Protection, said he’s worried that police will stop motorists who have committed no crime based on erroneous alerts and officers will treat those community members as suspects in serious crimes.
The coalition earlier this summer urged the city not to let police start using plate reader technology until police provided research and evidence that its benefits outweighed the costs.
Mateo said the police department should share data, both good and bad, showing how the plate readers are working.
Mateo also said it’s important that community members know that police are recording and at least temporarily storing their plate information and vehicle location, which goes into a searchable database.
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