Burr Ridge (IL) Police Department - Automated License Plate Reader Program

The Burr Ridge 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 2016, BRPD 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]  In 2020, BRPD spent $5000.00 on access to Vigilant’s LEARN/NVLS system from July 2020 to June 2021.[2]  BRPD also spent $4713.00 on six camera license keys (“CLK”) from April 2020 to April 2021.[3] A CLK is a user license to operate a single ALPR camera on Vigilant’s LEARN network.  In 2019, BRPD’s ALPR cameras recorded 288,197 detections, of which 430 were hits for a hit rate of 0.15%.[4]  BRPD shares and receives detection data and hot lists with numerous other law enforcement agencies.[5]  BRPD submitted 5719 license plate queries to the LEARN system in 2019.[6]  BRPD has an official ALPR policy, which is based on the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies’ (“CALEA”) standard 41.3.9.[7] 

[1] Burr Ridge-Vigilant Solutions Enterprise Service Agreement, available at: https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20422446-burr-ridge-il-police-vigilant-solutions-alpr-enterprise-service-agreement

[2] Vigilant Solutions Invoices (February and June 2020), available at: https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20422443-burr-ridge-il-police-vigilant-solutions-alpr-invoices

[3] Id.

[4] Burr Ridge LEARN Dashboard Hit Ratio Report 2019, available at: https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20422444-burr-ridge-il-police-vigilant-solutions-alpr-hit-ratio-2019

[5] Burr Ridge LEARN Agency Data Sharing Report (September 2020), available at: https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20422445-burr-ridge-il-police-vigilant-solutions-alpr-agency-sharing-2020

[6] Burr Ridge Police Department, “Audit Records Viewed List Report” (2019), available at: https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20422449-burr-ridge-il-police-department-alpr-viewed-records-2019

[7] Burr Ridge Police Department, “General Order – Automated License Plate Recognition System” (February 2017), available at: https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20422442-burr-ridge-il-police-alpr-policy