Chief Administrative Officer Justin McCarthy, Mayor Justin Elicker, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Acting Police Chief David Zannelli, and Asst. Chief Bhagtana celebrate $750,000 federal funds for crime-fighting tech at a recent presser. The city recently announced plans to spend some of a $750,000 fed eral grant on buying up to 200 more automatic license plate readers. Should we, the surveilled, be concerned? Over the last several months, automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) have been the subject of statewide debate. Advocacy groups like the ACLU of Connecticut warn that out-of-state law enforcement agencies have accessed the state’s ALPR data to target immigrants and those seeking reproductive or gender-affirming care. In response to growing concern, on Feb. 26, the state council for police standards passed new restrictions on how local law enforcement agencies, like the New Haven Police Department, share and store license plate data. NHPD’s vendor for ALPRs, Rekor, has also promised the department full control over who accesses their data and how the data is used. For Acting Police Chief David Zannelli, license plate readers are a critical crime-fighting tool. The cameras have helped the NHPD recover stolen vehicles, locate missing people, and solve violent crimes, he told the Independent. The NHPD allows officers to query ALPR data only for “legitimate criminal investigations,” which reduces the potential for privacy concerns, he said. The NHPD also controls who sees their license plate data. “People can’t access our data. We have to give them access,” Zannelli said. The ongoing debate over ALPRs has made its way to Hartford, where the state legislature is considering new restrictions on how license plate data is shared and stored. On Monday, the Connecticut General Assembly’s Judiciary Committee — which is co-chaired by New Haven State Sen. Gary Winfield — approved a bill that would limit the retention period for ALPR data to 30 days. After seven days, access would require a judicial warrant. The bill would also require local police departments to share data only with law enforcement agencies that promise not to use the data for immigration enforcement or investigations of people seeking reproductive or gender-affirming care. In most circumstances, data-sharing would be limited to public agencies in Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. The policy would also prohibit license plate data from being disclosed under the state’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). According to Zannelli, the NHPD has received no FOIA requests for license plate data from federal immigration officials. The bill’s next step is the state House of Representatives. Whether or not that law passes and is ultimately signed by the governor, guidelines issued by the Police Officer Standards and Training (POST) Council last month already ban local departments from using ALPR data to facilitate immigration enforcement or target people seeking reproductive or gender-affirming care. The policy also limits the retention period of ALPR data to 30 days. “I do think this policy prevents the things from happening that people are concerned about,” Mike Lawlor — a city police commission member, POST Council member, and criminal justice professor at the University of New Haven — told the Independent. “That doesn’t mean it can’t happen, but people would be held accountable.” Zannelli said last week that the department is working to update their policy to comply with the POST Council’s guidelines. The new regulations follow multiple reports uncovering how license plate data from Connecticut police departments was searched thousands of times by out-of-state agencies for federal immigration enforcement. The reports focus on Flock Safety, an ALPR vendor that the NHPD does not use. (The company takes issues with those reports and denies independently sharing data with the Department of Homeland Security.) Amid the negative reporting on Flock, in December, Rekor, NHPD’s ALPR vendor, assured the department that the NHPD retains full control and ownership over their data. “Rekor has no authority over how customers use or disclose their ALPR data. All decisions about sharing or using the data are made by the customer alone,” reads the document. “Rekor will never independently initiate or approve disclosures of ALPR data to any third party, including the U.S. federal government.” Rekor did not respond to multiple requests for comment. According to Zannelli, the agreement implies that the NHPD has full authority over who accesses their license plate data. He stressed that the department only queries or shares data to facilitate criminal investigations. See below for the NHPD’s one-page agreement with Rekor. NHPD’s agreement with Rekor. The post License Plate Readers Face Local, State Limits appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less