Dustin Slaughter at Declaration has been a part of an investigation into how the Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) uses their relatively new
automatic license plate readers (ALPR). In January, Declaration and MuckRock News filed a public records request to get information on how the ALPR data was
being collected and in what neighborhoods, etc.
City officials argue in their response that every metro driver is under investigation, in an effort to exempt so-called criminal investigatory records from release under PA’s Right-to-Know Act:
In response to Slaughter's request for two weeks of ALPR information, Philadelphia's finest sent this:
As
techdirt points out:
While it's theoretically possible 22 million plates could be scanned in two weeks, there's no way the Philly PD racked up 81,197 read hours during that time period, even if distributed across multiple vehicles. If this is a two-week period summary, the PD would need 241 units running 24 hours a day to hit the quoted "read hours."
That being said, since the
program started around 2011, that's still some impressive scanning going on. Especially when you consider the
size of the program, so far.
Last year, The Declaration began an investigation of PPD’s use of license plate readers. We learned that the police department has an ALPR fleet consisting of at least ten units that comb city traffic, snapping thousands of plate images per minute, and storing them on a server located inside the Philadelphia Police Department’s fusion center, known as the Delaware Valley Intelligence Center; read our previous reporting to learn more about how plate data is pooled and likely accessed by federal officials at the fusion center.
According to a policy document first obtained by Philly-based journalist Christopher Moraff, the police department retains this plate data for an entire year, regardless of whether drivers are under investigation. Moreover, police store this information indefinitely should plate data be used as part of an investigation.
Of course, if they keep plate data
indefinitely when it is involved in an investigation, that means, by their own admission, they are keeping everybody's plate information indefinitely. Declaration is appealing the decision. But, look at those numbers again:
Plates scanned: 22,810,687
Felony Arrests Made: 17
Misdemeanor Arrests Made: 9
That is astronomically inefficient. Almost pointless.