The Anchorage Police Department will soon be able to automatically read license plates and search a network of public and private cameras across the city.
The move into broader surveillance is part of an $11.8 million technology upgrade contract the Anchorage Assembly approved Tuesday. Police say the upgrade will streamline evidence gathering and improve their ability to respond with real-time information. Others worry that the new capabilities, particularly automated license plate readers, could create potential privacy intrusions.
The five-year agreement with Arizona-based Axon Enterprise approved Tuesday includes training, technical support, new drones, stun weapons and body cameras. The Assembly also approved a $375,000 contract for an artificial intelligence service to assist investigations. Police say the effort builds on other recent modernization work, such as equipping officers with body-worn cameras and enlarging the department’s drone program, and will produce more efficient probes and quicker response times, among other public safety benefits.
Officials said the department will fund the upgrades using a $1.8 million bond voters approved in 2021 for body cameras and other technology, and will tap its budget to cover any remaining costs.
Anchorage Police Department Chief Sean Case said in a Friday interview that the surveillance will be used responsibly. “We don’t just view this as a tech upgrade,” Case said.
Police haven’t begun using license plate readers yet, he said. That likely won’t happen for at least a few more months while the department finalizes rules for employing those tools. But the department has started using another new surveillance system: a center where police can view a network of public and private security camera feeds. Police said they plan to use the video to help identify suspects and respond to incidents.
The department’s building houses what it is calling a “Real-Time Crime Center,” where plans envision officers and staff monitoring video from up to 750 camera feeds. The center is functioning on a limited basis now, with one employee and about 15 cameras located at APD properties and Town Square Park. Police intend to add feeds from private security cameras at Anchorage residences and businesses after receiving permission from owners, Case said.
The idea came from feedback from the business community and some neighborhoods, he said, noting that the interest in giving police access to video feeds was surprising given prior criticism of red-light cameras. It wasn’t clear when the department will be able to scale up the real-time monitoring system. Case said the department has limited staffing and is waiting to see what kind of community response emerges.
The initiative also includes the license plate readers, a concept the department first proposed several years ago. Police officials told Assembly members the department had been considering adopting automatic license plate readers in 2023, saying agencies nationwide had increasingly used the technology to detect stolen vehicles, track crime suspects or collect evidence. The capability, Case said, is already integrated into department vehicles’ dashboard camera systems. Scanning license plates will be the final piece of the department’s tech upgrades, he said, because that’s the tool that the public appears most uneasy about.
“Turning it on is actually very easy. That’s the easy part. We already have everything we need,” Case said. “It’s the process we want to make sure we get nailed down.”
During Tuesday’s Assembly meeting, Case said the plate readers will focus on more serious crimes or missing persons. He said the readers will be configured to exclude license plates tied to minor misdemeanor warrants or low-level offenses.
Access to plate data will be limited to officers and staff assigned to the new video center while license plate records will likely be kept for a shorter period than body camera footage, he said.
Anchorage Assembly Chair Christopher Constant was the lone member to vote against the department’s technology contract Tuesday. Constant has raised concerns about the deal, saying he felt the vote was rushed given fears about privacy intrusions. But after working with Case to clarify how police will use the technologies, Constant said in an interview that he’s more confident the department will protect privacy. “It’s a good thing in the right hands,” he said of the surveillance tools police will now be using.
The ACLU of Alaska said it submitted a comment before Tuesday’s vote asking the Assembly to delay the decision to allow more public input and clearer information about what “guardrails” police would implement, spokesperson Meghan Barker said. “These things are not clear,” she said.
An annual audit and quarterly reviews will act as safeguards to reassure those worried about privacy intrusions or data collection that the new tools are being used appropriately, Case said. In the coming months, he said, the department will also finalize policies that will define how and when the new surveillance systems are employed.
The department plans to present those policies to the municipal Public Health and Safety Committee to collect feedback, Case said.
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