Elgin Police Department Automated License Plate Readers

The Elgin 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 2014, Elgin Police Department entered into a contract with Vigilant Solutions for access to Vigilant’s LEARN/NVLS database, using money from drug asset forfeitures.[1]In 2019, EPD paid Vigilant Solutions $10,790 for database access.[2]EPD also operates at least 12 ALPR cameras and paid $3600 for camera license keys (“CLK”) in 2020.[3]A CLK is a user license to operate a single ALPR camera on Vigilant’s LEARN network.In 2019, EPD’s ALPR cameras recorded 120,715 detections, of which 64 were hits for a hit ratio of 0.05%.[4]EPD shares and receives detection data with numerous other law enforcement agencies.[5]While EPD does not share its hotlists with other agencies, EPD receives shared hotlists from eight law enforcement agencies.[6]EPD submitted 174 license plate queries to the LEARN system in 2019.[7]EPD has an official ALPR policy.[8]

[1] Elgin-Vigilant Solutions Software Service Program Agreement, available at: https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20423186-elgin-il-police-vigilant-solutions-alpr-software-service-agreement

[2] Elgin Vigilant Solutions Invoices, available at: https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20423185-elgin-il-police-alpr-invoices

[3] Id.

[4] Elgin LEARN Dashboard Detection Report 2019, available at: https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20423183-elgin-il-police-alpr-detections-2019 , and Elgin LEARN Dashboard Hit Report 2019, available at: https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20423182-elgin-il-police-alpr-hits-2019

[5] Elgin LEARN Agency Data Sharing Report (August 2020), available at: https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20423184-elgin-il-police-alpr-agency-sharing-2020

[6] Id.

[7] Elgin Police Department, “Audit Records Viewed List Report” (2019), available at: https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20423192-elgin-il-police-alpr-viewed-records-2019

[8] Elgin Police Department, “Standard Operating Procedure - Law Enforcement Data Systems 41.7, available at: https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20423187-elgin-il-police-alpr-policy