{"data":[{"author":"Melanie_Kebler","body":"Hi all, here is some information from our police department:\n\n\nBend PD received a grant last year to install fixed automatic license plates reader systems at two highway locations at the entry/exit of city limits. They’ve been installed and working for about five months.\n\n\nData review is controlled by internal policies the same way that all of our members’ police actions and use of tech are handled by policy. Our ALPR use policy is currently being updated to make sure it aligns with best practices, and to ensure captured data is only what is publicly available, among other clarifications.\n\n\nAgencies set their sharing levels. Bend PD does not share our information outside of the state of Oregon, and we do not share information with federal agencies. We do allow sharing with other local Oregon police agencies for investigation purposes.\n\n\nThe data is held within the vendor’s secure server, similar to how bodyworn camera data and other digital evidence are held and secured, through a CJIS-compliant system (Flock, Axon, etc.)  \n\n\nSince implementation we’ve had multiple successes directly related to that ALPR system, including arrests for local crimes, recovery of a missing/endangered person, and recovery of multiple stolen vehicles. A good example would be a stabbing from several months ago – we knew the suspect’s identity and the multiple vehicles associated with the suspect, and we received a ping when one of those vehicles was headed south out of town in the middle of the night. The stabbing suspect was taken into custody in Sunriver. Without a tool like this, the likely method for keeping track of these multiple vehicles would have been surveillance, which uses a lot of hours and doesn’t always work.\n\n\nWe do believe these systems can provide a huge public safety benefit when used appropriately. It’s important to us that we balance public trust with this valuable tool.","created_utc":1764097113,"id":"nqr0t8t","link_id":"t3_1p5xma6"},{"author":"Melanie_Kebler","body":"I have passed along concerns from this thread to the City Manager and Chief Krantz. I have suggested we could perhaps set up a transparency dashboard like this city has done: [Fort Bragg PD says its Flock cameras are keeping privacy intact](https://norcalpublicmedia.org/2025112599714/news-feed/fort-bragg-pd-says-its-flock-cameras-are-keeping-privacy-intact) I will continue to learn more about this issue. I don't like to make promises beyond my authority or knowledge, and I try to pass accurate information from our staff who are closest to the issue.\n\nIf there is a specific ask you have of Council for action, please contact us and let us know. If it's \"Get rid of all these cameras tomorrow,\" I'm not going to commit to that, to be clear.","created_utc":1764178244,"id":"nqwv3ec","link_id":"t3_1p5xma6"}]}