Item #6 Draft Recommendation - APD Automated License Reader Program — original pdf

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PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION Recommendation 20250602-006: Date: June 2, 2025 Subject: Austin Police Department (APD) Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) Program Motioned by: Seconded by: WHEREAS, The Austin Public Safety Commission is tasked with reviewing public safety agency budgets and providing policy recommendations to the Austin City Council; and WHEREAS, on September 15, 2022, City Council adopted Resolution No. 20220915-056 directing the development of a revised Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) policy and providing guidance to ensure the privacy and civil rights of the residents of Austin are protected1; and WHEREAS, on March 31, 2023, the Office of Police Oversight released the results of their preliminary review of the Austin Police Department ALPR policy and procedures and provided recommendations for policy language/procedure improvements to safeguard privacy and mitigate misuse, documentation, data retention, data integrity, data sharing, and auditing among others2; and WHEREAS, the Office of Police Oversight’s Analysis made recommendations based on the review of Axon Fleet 3 cameras contract3; and WHEREAS, on May 15, 2023, the Public Safety Commission recommended approval of the ALPR program contingent on adherence with both Resolution 56 & OPO March 31, 2023 Memo and sharing of quarterly ALPR audit data with the Public Safety Commission. 4 1 RESOLUTION NO. 20220915-056 https://services.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=392730 2 Office of Police Oversight Analysis of the Austin Police Department’s Proposed Policy on Automatic License Plate Readers (General Order 344) 3 Office of Police Oversight Analysis of the Austin Police Department’s Proposed Policy on Automatic License Plate Readers (General Order 344) 4 Public Safety Commission Recommendation #20230515-002 https://services.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=408819 WHEREAS, on June 8 2023, City Council amended Resolution 56 to reflect that data collected by APD be kept for a maximum of seven days and destroyed, with a few carved out exceptions for the trial period5; and WHEREAS, an additional vendor, Flock Safety, has been contracted to augment and scale APD’s ALPR program; and WHEREAS, on March 27, 2025, City Council approved an extension of the ALPR trial to allow the City Auditor to complete an audit and provide a report to Council with specified information by end of the pilot program6; and WHEREAS, the Office of the City Auditor conducted a review of the first 9 months of the ALPR program to evaluate APD’s risk management audits for reliability and effectiveness, to compare the ALPR program with other departments, and to monitor for additional emergent risks7; and WHEREAS the audit found that although the ALPR program “generally complied with Council Resolution No. 20220915-056 and No. 20230608-085”, it could be improved with greater formalization and scheduling and also found the City’s contract with Flock Safety may leave motorists’ data open to unintended use8; and WHEREAS, Section 4.4 of the Terms and Conditions of the City’s contract with Flock grants Flock a “non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free right and license... to (i) use and distribute Aggregated Data to improve and enhance the Services and for other development, diagnostic, and corrective purposes, other Flock offerings, and crime prevention efforts, and (ii) disclose the Agency Data (both inclusive of any Footage) to enable law enforcement monitoring against law enforcement hotlists as well as provide Footage search access to law enforcement for investigative purposes only.”9 WHEREAS, Flock Safety cameras apply machine learning to the footage they capture to identify important details that traditional cameras overlook, capturing and organizing vehicles by make, model, color, resident v. non-resident designations, timestamps, type of plate (standard v. temporary), and damage or alterations10; and WHEREAS Flock Safety uses Amazon Web Services for cloud storage, introducing yet another third- party with access to data from the Automated License Plate Reader program11; and WHEREAS, the audit found that as of April 2025 there were nearly 500 cameras installed and APD estimated they had performed over 75 million scans with 37,697,736 of those scans in final quarter audited12; and 5 RESOLUTION NO. 20230608-085 https://services.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=410268 6 RESOLUTION NO. 20250327-103 https://services.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=448752 7 Audit Report: APD License Plate Reader https://services.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=451731 8 Audit Report: APD License Plate Reader https://services.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=451731 9 Audit Report: APD License Plate Reader https://services.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=451731 10 Flock Safety Camera FAQs https://www.flocksafety.com/faq#camera 11 Flock Safety Storage FAQs https://www.flocksafety.com/faq#privacy 12 Audit Report: APD License Plate Reader https://services.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=451731 WHEREAS, the federal government has escalated use of local law enforcement agencies and their data for immigration enforcement and other purposes. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Public Safety Commission recommends an immediate halt to the Austin Police Department Automated License Plate Reader program; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Public Safety Commission recommends: 1. A full audit and reporting to be shared with Austin City Council and the Public Safety Commission of all Automated License Plate Reader data shared with Flock Safety, Axon, Austin Regional Intelligence Center (ARIC), vendors, third parties and any other law enforcement agencies that APD has a data sharing agreement with; and 2. All available measures be taken to secure citizen’s data in accordance with Resolution No. 20220915- 056 and No. 20230608-085 with legal documentation safeguarding citizen’s data from being used in machine learning, large language models, or AI products in development. Vote: For: Absent: Attest: