Addison (IL) Police Department - Automated License Plate Reader Program

The Addison Police Department uses automated license plate readers (“ALPR”).  ALPRs are high-speed cameras that scan their surroundings for vehicle license plates.  ALPR cameras can be fixed-location (e.g. mounted on poles) or vehicle-mounted. When an ALPR camera scans a license plate, it records an image of the plate called a “detection” or “plate scan.” The ALPR system’s software then uploads these images of license plates to a centralized database hosted and managed by a private ALPR database service provider. The detections in the database include the date, time, and location of the detection, as well as a photograph of the vehicle and its plate. Law enforcement agencies can enter license plate numbers into the database and the database will return a list of such all instances in which its ALPR cameras detected that plate. Law enforcement agencies can also elect to make their detections accessible to other law enforcement agencies. Law enforcement agencies can also create lists of wanted license plates (“hot lists”) in the database and the database will alert that agency of all future detections of that plate (“hits”) when they occur.  Even if a law enforcement agency does not operate its own ALPR cameras, it can still subscribe to a ALPR database service to conduct searches of detections or receive hits for vehicles of interest to their investigations. 

Vigilant Solutions is the most prolific provider of ALPR database access services for law enforcement.  Vigilant’s database of ALPR detections is called the National Vehicle Location Service (“NVLS”).  Vigilant’s law enforcement clients access this database via Vigilant’s software and online portal, called the Law Enforcement Archival Reporting Network (“LEARN”).  Vigilant, a subsidiary of Chicago-based Motorola Solutions, also produces and sells ALPR hardware.

In 2018, APD entered into a contract with Vigilant Solutions for the operation of ALPR cameras on Vigilant’s network and for access to Vigilant’s LEARN/NVLS database.[1]  APD purchased $100,075.00 worth of ALPR equipment and services from Vigilant Solutions.[2]  Given that APD purchased nine camera license keys (“CLK”), it likely operates at least nine ALPR cameras.[3] A CLK is a user license to operate a single ALPR camera on Vigilant’s LEARN network.  APD operates at least one fixed-location ALPR camera.[4]  In 2019, APD’s ALPR cameras recorded 23,695 detections, of which 56 were hits for a hit rate of 0.2%.[5]  APD shares and receives detection data with numerous other law enforcement agencies.[6]  However, APD did not share or receive hot lists from other agencies at that time.[7]  APD submitted over license plate 500 queries to the LEARN system in 2019.[8]  APD has an official ALPR policy, which is based on the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies’ (“CALEA”) standard 41.3.9.[9] 

[1] Addison-Vigilant Solutions Enterprise Service Agreement, available at: https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20422360-addison-il-police-vigilant-solutions-alpr-enterprise-service-agreement

[2] Brite Computers Invoice (April 6, 2018), available at: https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20422359-addison-il-police-vigilant-solutions-alpr-invoices-2018

[3] Id.

[4] Id.

[5] Addison LEARN Dashboard Hit Ratio Report 2019, available at: https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20422358-addison-il-police-vigilant-solutions-alpr-hit-ratio-2019

[6] Addison LEARN Agency Data Sharing Report (July 2020), available at: https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20422357-addison-il-police-vigilant-solutions-alpr-agency-sharing-2020

[7] Id.

[8] Addison Police Department, “Audit Records Viewed List Report” (2019), available at: https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20422434-addison-il-police-alpr-learn-viewed-records-2019   

This data appears incomplete as it covers only approximately three months from October 2019 – December 2019 and terminates at exactly 500 queries.

[9] Addison Police Department, “Operational Procedure – License Plate Reader (LPR) System” (April 2019), available at: https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20422361-addison-il-police-alpr-policy