Letter to the editor from Greenwich Police Chief James Heavey
There’s been a lot of talk lately about the privacy risks supposedly posed by “Flock cameras.” Automated license plate readers, or LPRs, are in fact an extremely valuable tool for law enforcement, and it’s time to clear up some of the misinformation surrounding them.
LPRs simply read and record license plates as cars pass, logging the plate number, timestamp, location and sometimes an image of the vehicle. That data is checked against a “hotlist,” automated alerts for stolen vehicles, AMBER Alerts, and wanted or missing persons linked to a plate. It can also be used afterward, as part of an investigation, to see what vehicles were in an area when a crime occurred.
In Greenwich alone, LPRs have located missing dementia patients, helped apprehend a predator who attempted to assault a Greenwich middle schooler, and assisted in solving numerous crimes, including robbery. They also frequently alert GPD when a stolen car enters town, a strong sign its occupants are here to commit more crimes.
Flock Safety, an Atlanta-based company, is a separate matter entirely. It manufactures popular ALPR cameras that are solar powered and cellular connected, and some of its products offer continuous video, a cloud-based searchable database, and cross-agency network searching. Greenwich does not use any Flock equipment. We currently operate 27 vehicle-mounted LPRs, built into the Axon in-car camera system Connecticut law mandates for police vehicles, and 13 fixed-location LPRs manufactured by Rekor.
All of GPD’s LPRs perform narrow, limited functions, and officers do not actively monitor them live. The cameras operate automatically and generate an alert only when a plat matches an entry already loaded onto the hotlist. The data they capture is stringently controlled, stored and controlled only by GPD, never a third party, and is not shared with any federal agency. it is also shielded from public disclosure by an exception to the states FOIA law, so it cannot be obtained and misused for stalking or other harmful purposes. A handful of officers around the country have made news for misusing similar data, but none of them were in Greenwich, and their arrests are proof the system’s audit safeguards work.
Legally, this technology stands on solid ground. No one out in public has a reasonable expectation of privacy; the US Supreme Court affirmed that principle decades ago. In the 1983 case United States v. Knotts, the Court held that a person traveling in an automobile on public thoroughfares has no reasonable expectation of privacy in his movements from one place to another.” Merely observing a vehicle on the road, in person or by camera, is not a Fourth Amendment search. Later cases have limited warrantless cell phone tracking and extensive digital surveillance, but the core principle, that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in what is knowingly exposed to public view, still stands.
An ordinary LPR is no more privacy concern than carrying a cell phone or using an E-ZPass. The real issue is the stored data and the people who might misuse it, not the tool itself. The same is true of a kitchen knife, a service pistol, or the data held by your bank or favorite store: in the right hands, it’s a force for good, and in the wrong hands, it can cause harm. That is exactly why GPD’s policies focus on what matters, limiting how much data is captured, how long it is kept,how it is used, and with whom it is shared.
GPD’s practices already comply with Connecticut’s new LPR laws. Public Act 26-24, as amended by Public Act 26-26, limits data retention to 21 days unless the data is part of an active criminal investigation.
The Connecticut Trust Act separately bars any use of LPR systems or data to investigate suspected immigration violations.
GPD may share information only with agencies in Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, or Rhode Island that agree to follow Connecticut’s restrictions, and a robust audit system guards against misuse. An officer who violates the law faces criminal charges and can be permanently decertified by the Police Officer Standards and Training Council.
LPRs are exactly what the public has asked GPD to provide, a tool that helps solve crimes, locate missing people, and address the public safety concerns residents rightly expect us to handle, all within a real framework of legal safeguards and oversight. Used responsibly, and it is being used responsibly here in Greenwich, this technology makes our town safer without compromising anyone’s rights.
James J. Heavey
Chief of Police
Town of Greenwich