Lombard (IL) Police Department Automated License Plate Readers
The Lombard 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, the Lombard Police Department 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, LPD signed a new contract with Vigilant.[2] LPD paid Vigilant $10,800 for its 2020 access to Vigilant’s LEARN/NVLS database.[3] LPD also paid Vigilant $4,000 and $4541.67 for operation of its cameras on Vigilant’s network for 2020 and 2021 respectively.[4] Finally, LPD also paid Vigilant an additional $14,209 for miscellaneous equipment and services in 2020.[5] In 2019, LPD’s ALPR cameras recorded 392,254 detections, of which 628 were hits for a hit rate of 0.16%.[6] LPD shares and receives detection data and hot lists with numerous other law enforcement agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”).[7] In March 2019 ACLU of Illinois criticized the practice of local law enforcement sharing its ALPR data with ICE and called on Lombard to end this practice.[8] LPD has an official ALPR policy.[9] In 2019, LPD submitted 1,972 license plate queries to the LEARN/NVLS database.[10]
[1] Lombard-Vigilant Solutions Enterprise Service Agreement 2014, available at: https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20436491-lombard-il-police-alpr-vigilant-solutions-enterprise-service-agreement-2014
[2] Lombard-Vigilant Solutions Enterprise Service Agreement 2020, available at: https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20436492-lombard-il-police-alpr-vigilant-solutions-enterprise-service-agreement-2020
[3] Lombard Vigilant Solutions Invoices 2020, available at: https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20436494-lombard-il-police-alpr-invoices-2019-2020
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] Lombard Detections and Hits Report 2019, available at: https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20436493-lombard-il-police-alpr-hit-ratio-2019
[7] Lombard LEARN Agency Data Sharing Report 2020, available at: https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20436490-lombard-il-police-alpr-agency-sharing-2020
[8] See, https://www.aclu-il.org/en/press-releases/ice-targeting-immigrants-based-automatic-license-plate-reader-alpr-data-supplied
[9] Lombard Police Department General Order ALPR, available at: https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20436495-lombard-il-police-alpr-policy
[10] Lombard ALPR Viewed Records Report 2019, available at: https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20436489-lombard-il-police-alpr-viewed-records-2019