Mike Wolanin | The Republic A license plate scanner hangs from the windshield of Columbus police officer Cameron Curry’s police cruiser outside the Columbus Police Headquarters in Columbus, Ind., Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023.
The Columbus Police Department has outfitted officers and patrol vehicles with enhanced tools and gear that officials say provide transparency and can help them solve crimes.
The upgrades include a high-tech in-car video system, new body-worn cameras for officers and new less-lethal launchers that police say can be used to de-escalate dangerous situations without resorting to higher levels of force.
The new in-car video system, called the Axon Fleet 3, includes high-definition cameras that use artificial intelligence to automatically read and record license plate numbers while officers are on patrol. The system alerts police when it detects a license plate associated with a vehicle suspected to have been involved in a crime.
The new in-car system, which CPD said has already assisted in the arrest of a wanted person, is similar to the stationary Flock Safety license plate readers that CPD has been using since early 2022.
Previously, officers had to manually enter a license plate number to perform a license plate check while on patrol. The new system automatically scans license plates nearly instantaneously drawing on entries in crime databases such as the National Crime Database or local entries made by authorized CPD personnel.
“This allows the officers to scan plates in real time while they’re on patrol,” said CPD spokesman Lt. Matt Harris. “The is a game-changer for us. …This will allow the officers to help locate wanted persons, missing persons, AMBER Alerts, just like we utilize the Flock cameras.”
“This is something that is a huge benefit for the officers and the public,” Harris added later in the interview.
At the same time, officers have been equipped with new body-worn cameras, called the Axon Body 3, which are designed to better capture police interactions with the public and include high-definition video feeds and improved audio recordings.
The cameras also have a feature that allows them to capture two minutes of video immediately before an officer activates them that officials hope will show what might have led up to the event.
“(The cameras) are obviously instrumental with capturing events the officers respond to,” Harris said. “…But (they) also got the transparency that’s important for the community. I think it holds the public accountable for their behavior if they know what they’re saying and what they’re doing is being recorded. But it also holds the officers accountable as well to make sure they’re following policies and procedures. It’s definitely a two-way street, and the officers are very used to wearing them.”
CPD also recently outfitted patrol officers with new less-lethal launchers, which can allow officers to avoid using higher levels of force in certain situations, officials said.
The new launchers, called the 40mm LMT Single Shot Launcher, use sponge rounds that police say are more accurate at longer distances and less likely to cause penetrating injuries than the bean bag rounds CPD had been using for a number of years.
CPD’s previous launchers were 12-gauge shotguns that were painted orange and loaded with bean bag rounds.
Harris characterized the new launchers as a “win” for the officers and the community, describing the launchers as an “extra option that we have versus having to resort immediately to higher levels of force.”
The costs
The Axon Fleet 3 system costs the department $164,679 per year and includes the cameras, installation, license plate reading capabilities and video storage, Harris said.
The Axon Body 3 cameras, along with some tasers that CPD has purchased, cost $163,097.00 per year and includes maintenance and replacing any damaged cameras.
CPD has signed a five-year contract for the in-car video system and body-worn cameras with their manufacturer, Arizona-based Axon Enterprise Inc.
CPD purchased about 60 less-lethal launchers, each costing $1,375, for a total of around $82,500.
The money for the equipment comes from CPD’s general budget, Harris said.
In-car video system
The Axon Fleet 3 in-car video system uses cameras that have a field of view that covers three lanes of traffic, according to the manufacturer’s website.
Axon claims that the cameras can read plates up to a distance of 50 feet and at closing speeds of up to 140 miles per hour.
The system also includes interior cameras that monitor activity in the backseat of the patrol vehicle and has a live streaming feature that allows supervisors to review in-car cameras remotely in real time.
The data collected on license plates scanned while officers are on patrol is retained and can be queried through the system’s dashboard and used in later investigations, according to the system’s user guide.
Officers can perform searches on the dashboard based on the license plate number, vehicle owner and date range, the guide states. They also can create their own “hotlist” that will trigger an alert sent to law enforcement officials if the wanted vehicle comes within the cameras’ field of view.
The new system draws on information from the same crime databases as the stationary Flock Safety cameras, including individuals suspected of committing crimes in other counties or states.
Privacy concerns
While law enforcement agencies across the country have said automatic license plate readers have been helpful at generating investigative leads and solving crimes that may have otherwise gone unsolved, the technology has been the subject of controversy in other communities.
Privacy rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Electronic Frontier Foundation, have characterized the technology as a form of mass surveillance and have expressed concerns that the cameras track vehicles — whether they have been flagged by police or not — and the technology has the potential to be abused.
“If there’s one thing that we’ve learned from the growing use of automated license plate readers across the country is that these things are not incredibly targeted, Matthew Guariglia, a policy analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told The Republic previously. “… For the most part, those cameras are on and they are recording every license plate that goes by, and so this includes the innocent and the guilty alike. And, of course, 99.9% of those people are innocent.”
“What automated license plate readers represent is the tracing of their movement as they go about their day,” Guariglia added.
However, the companies that make the systems, including Axon and Flock Safety, have said they take privacy seriously.
Additionally, Axon has said public safety data is owned by the law enforcement agencies who use their products and will never sell public safety data to third parties.
“(Automatic license plate readers are) an important tool for keeping communities safe as it can help apprehend criminals, find missing children and recover stolen vehicles,” Axon CEO and founder Rick Smith said in a press release on the Axon Fleet 3 system. “We do, however, recognize that there are legitimate concerns about privacy protections, constitutionality of search and data security issues that need to be addressed. We embrace that we have an ethical obligation to develop this technology thoughtfully and bring new privacy safeguards to the industry.”
Safeguards
Harris said CPD has safeguards in place to ensure the license plate readers are being used properly.
Each CPD officer has their own log-in, and all activity with the license plate readers is tracked. CPD also performs audits of how the cameras are being used.
“It’s no different than when we run a driver’s license or license plate,” Harris said. “That’s all logged and it’s kept track of. In the event that there was any question over why that plate was ran or license was ran, the officer has to be able to justify that and provide a reason.”
