The University of Iowa Police Department has long sought to be a leader in leveraging technology effectively to maintain campus safety, enhance transparency, and gather evidence critical to solving and preventing crimes on campus.
UIPD uses automated license plate readers (ALPRs) to capture objective evidence without compromising individual privacy. This technology is used to assist police officers in solving crimes after they have occurred, locate stolen vehicles that are sometimes used to commit serious crimes, and locate missing/endangered people.
The department has a clear policy that intends to enhance campus safety while respecting and protecting the privacy of everyone who uses public roadways. These cameras are not used to enforce or monitor traffic offenses.
FAQs: Policies and Use
How do ALPRs help solve crime?
Seven out of every 10 crimes are committed with a vehicle. License plate numbers give UI Police the objective, actionable leads needed to solve investigations. Using ALPR cameras, detectives can pinpoint the suspect’s last known location which narrows down the search radius.
Number of cameras
30
Data collection & sharing
- The cameras capture an image of a license plate and vehicle characteristics (body type, make, color).
- The cameras are not designed to capture driver images or traffic offenses (speeding, red light violations, etc.).
- Data from the license plate readers may be shared with partner law enforcement agencies in Iowa when those agencies have a legitimate public safety or investigative purpose.
Use of data
- UI Police use license plate readers to investigate crimes that have already occurred, prevent additional crimes on campus, and locate missing/endangered people.
- Access to the system is restricted to authorized users and for law enforcement purposes only. The images are not used for enforcing traffic offenses.
- The license plate reader data system notifies local law enforcement when a stolen car or a vehicle/license plate associated with a known, wanted suspect from a state or national crime database passes an ALPR reader. The ALPRs also send alerts if a vehicle associated with a missing person in an AMBER Alert or Silver Alert passes a license plate reader.
- By policy, all alerts are required to be human verified before any law enforcement action. This means UI Police are required to take additional steps to verify information alerted in the license plate reader system before responding.
- UIPD policy prohibits the use of license plate reader data for traffic enforcement, harassment or intimidation, discriminatory practices based solely on a protected class, and personal use with no law enforcement purpose.
- UI Police are not using ALPRs to collect revenue.
Data retention
- UIPD's ALPR system has strict measures in place to protect community privacy.
- Images of license plates and vehicles are deleted after 30 days for privacy and security purposes.
- License plate reader data associated with ongoing law enforcement investigations are retained with the investigative records.
- Our vendor ensures data is encrypted at the level used by the federal government with a cloud provider. All Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) data is stored in the Amazon Web Service (AWS) GovCloud and is only available to law enforcement agencies.
- Our vendor does not sell ALPR data to third parties.
Access to records and oversight
- Access to records created and maintained by the ALPR system is restricted to sworn law enforcement officers and their support staff.
- All Campus Safety employees with access to the license plate reader system are required to use a unique login and password.
- Every search conducted in the ALPR system requires a specific reason and valid case number for a traceable audit conducted by law enforcement leadership.
- By policy, police supervisors regularly review access entries to ensure acceptable system use.
- Any misuse of the system could result in disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment or possible criminal charges, if applicable.
Public notification
The UI Police Department announced its use of ALPR technologies prior to implementation.