Dayton police chief defends proposal to expand use of automated license plate cameras

DAYTON — Expanding the use of automated license plate cameras in Dayton will help alleviate the information overload on police officers and build efficiency into criminal investigations and the response to public safety alerts, Dayton Police Chief Kamran Afzal said.

The chief met with reporters Friday morning to respond to concerns some community groups have expressed including the potential abuse of access to information, the targeting of certain communities and racial profiling.

>> RELATED: Communities concerned about Dayton police plan to expand use of license plate cameras

“The only things police officers would be notified about would be for a felony, domestic violence, stolen vehicles or if a car is involved in a crime,” Chief Afzal said. “That’s the only thing our officers are going to be alerted on, per our policy.”

WHY DAYTON POLICE WANT TO EXPAND USE OF CAMERAS

The gist of why the Dayton Police Department wants to expand the Automated License Plate Reader technology to all of its vehicle, and to include some fixed-site LPRs in some neighborhoods, is because more than 950 cars (vehicles) have been stolen in a year, on average, in the last five years, the chief said. Police recover 650 or so cars a year, on average, which means 300 vehicles are never recovered.

The LPR technology is to help officers from the perspective of information overload, Afzal said. The technology automates information police already have access to and would otherwise be tied up in tracking down, instead of apprehending offenders.

“I’m not sure why anybody would have an issue with a police officer, knowing the car in front of them that’s on a camera, is stolen,” Afzal said.

He said that means there is another person . . . that lost that car . . . that the department . . . has gone through a process where somebody has been victimized, we have evaluated that information and then a prosecutor that has assessed that information says “ ‘yep’ you have enough probable cause that person is the one who committed the crime.’ "

“That’s the information we would get based on the license plate reader,” the chief said. Officers still have to do the legwork to confirm an alert.

“What the readers do, unbiasedly, is read a plate and is tell us if a car is stolen or not from the perspective of whoever is occupying the vehicle, whether the owner is wanted on a felony or on a domestic violence or the car is involved in some other crime.”

HOW DPD CAN USE INFORMATION FROM THE CAMERAS

State law (the Ohio Revised Code) mandates how the police department would be able to use information gleaned from the LPR technology, the chief said, information that is in the public space and not in your home.

“You’re talking about leads, not about getting information on somebody’s first born,” he said.

In the era of police reforms, he said, the technology takes away a person’s personal biases as to why police might want to “run” [the license plate of] a particular car.

“It’s running every car that in front of the camera,” he said of the LPR technology.

DPD does not share information from LPRs with ICE or any other federal law enforcement agency, he said. “As an immigrant, I’m not sure I would support a department that would coordinate with ICE” to the point of things of a local police department nature.”

Referring to his 31 years of law enforcement experience, the chief said, “To us, anybody who lives in their community, documented or undocumented, citizen, whatever gender or race they might be, they are citizens as far as we are concerned. We don’t share anything with ICE.”

Area law enforcement agencies that use the technology do share information if it involves a car that may have been involved in an ongoing investigation, the chief said.

The department’s expansion proposal would include LPR alerts for specific instances -- Amber (for kidnapped or missing children), Silver (for missing or endangered citizens 65 and older) or Blue (for officers who are missing/killed/injured and a suspect vehicle has been identified).

WHAT LICENSE PLATE CAMERAS MEAN FOR COMMUNITIES

The department’s proposal includes having some fixed-site LPRs in communities that would be paid for through grants, Afzal said. Fixed-site LPRs would not be installed in any community without that community’s input. Research would then have to be done to determine whether there is enough evidence to support a site.

“We don’t have any preconceived notions that it needs to go in this particular community because a community has to have a say-so,” the chief said, but “there are several communities that want the technology because of some of the reckless driving behavior” that has occurred in their neighborhoods.

The chief declined to say which communities want fixed-site LPRs.

“You [media] would have our lunch if you found out a shooting occurred and we didn’t do anything in that area. Citizens would have our lunch and say, ‘well how come you are not identifying culprits in that area?’ "

This technology helps Dayton police to say ‘let’s not stop 50 cars, let’s stop one car, the one car the camera might have picked up,’ ” he said.

Who knows, Afzal asked rhetorically, how many cars have gone in front of police that were stolen or were wanted and officers just had no idea?

“This technology helps you to fish with a spear...instead of putting out a wide net out there and stopping anybody and everybody in an area,” he said.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

The Dayton City Commission is expected to take up the DPD’s proposal on July 20 and could approve, reject or send the plan back to the department for more information.

Afzal said the department has been working with specific commissioners to make sure the proposal meets and letter and intent of the law in terms of what is allowed under an expanded use of the technology.

The police officer’s job is to apprehend offenders, hopefully deter crime, the chief said.

“We’re going to do that whether you give us the technology or not. Do you want us to stop 50 cars, or one or two cars?”

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