Safety leaders question privacy of Austin license plate reader data

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Auditors this week called for the city to update the terms of its Automated License Plate Reader program to clarify how long data is stored and limit who can access it. The discussion took place just days before the Austin City Council is to consider the program's future.
At Tuesday's Public Safety Commission meeting, members heard the results of an audit assessing the Austin Police Department's APLR pilot program from March 2024 to March 2025.
Central Texas continues to grapple with use of license plate readers
The audit said the city's 40 fixed cameras and the 500 cameras attached to Austin Police vehicles made an estimated 75 million scans of license plates.
The city's vendors for ALPRs are Flock Safety and Axon. Recommendations from the audit said the language in the city's contract with Flock is too vague and 'possibly expansive.'
Safety commissioners questioned how long vendors store that data. The original terms outlined that Austin's program would store the data for seven days, but the audit determined vendors can retain that data.
Access to that data has come into question in recent months as immigration and deportation efforts have escalated under the Trump administration. Critics of ALPRs have accused local law enforcement agencies of sharing data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
APD Sergeant Lee Knouse responded to commissioners' questions about ICE's access to APD's data. He said data collected by ALPRs is only accessible to APD.
'When a network administrator looks into Flock, we can see who has searched our cameras, what they're searching for, when they search for it, if an ICE agent or an outside agent was accessing our cameras. We do not provide access to APD data to anyone outside of APD personnel who's been through our training,' Knouse said.
The audit presentation will be made again to Austin City Council members at their workshop on Wednesday. The city council is expected to vote on the program's future at its regular Thursday meeting.
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