Asheville – At a recent worksession, staff provided the Asheville City Council with more information about the license plate cameras that will be installed throughout the city. The presentation was in response to a request from Councilwoman Kim Roney, who expressed her primary concern about the cameras being available online.
These are not speed cameras. City Attorney Brad Branham explained that in North Carolina, local governments need authorization from the General Assembly before they can use cameras for the enforcement of moving violations. Currently, there are no state statutes prohibiting the use of automated license plate readers.
Mayor Esther Manheimer added that traffic cameras are not widely used in North Carolina, although they are in other states, because the state constitution requires that fines be remitted to the school system. Consequently, local governments that install the cameras face challenges in raising revenue to pay for them, as they are unable to collect administrative fees. Legal battles to change this system are ongoing. “So, it’s basically not worth it in North Carolina for cities to try to use speed cameras, because you’re just going to pay for a lot of litigation and lose all the money, anyway,” she said.
Deputy Police Chief Jackie Stepp stated that the Asheville Police Department (APD) has been using 150 AXON Fleet 3 mobile license plate cameras in police vehicles for almost a year. Now, it plans to install eleven stationary cameras provided by Flock Safety.
Since many council members were concerned that these cameras might be used to target protected populations, Stepp clarified that they only record images of license plates and vehicles, stamping them with the date and location. The city’s “transparency page,” ashevillepdbwc.evidence.com, explicitly prohibits their use for “harassment, intimidation, usage based solely on a protected class (race, sex, religion, etc.), personal use.”
Councilwoman Maggie Ullman was skeptical. She had heard too much about the technology not being sophisticated enough to ensure precision enforcement. Instead, it was perceived as “leading to targeting in a really inappropriate way.” Echoing fears expressed by constituents, she continued, “We’re in such a volatile federal context right now, and I know we say prohibited uses include immigration enforcement, but what if a different level of government comes in … and wants to change our policy priorities and then has access to this information in a way that doesn’t match what our community believes in?”
Branham responded that law enforcement records are not part of the public domain, and it would take an act of the courts to obtain them. This did little to alleviate concerns among those witnessing established programs and policies being overturned by executive order.
Stepp discussed the benefits of the cameras. Already, APD’s AXON cameras have identified 11 stolen vehicles and assisted two other law enforcement agencies in the network. One assist helped dismantle a vehicle theft ring, while the other involved identifying a vehicle used in an armed robbery. The cameras have also reduced the time officers and civilians spend during traffic stops. Previously, officers had to wait for dispatchers to run license plates; now, they receive data in real time.
Stepp noted that with Flock and AXON, the APD has access to data from 17,007 cameras in the Southeastern United States. She mentioned that about 97% of those cameras belong to law enforcement agencies, while the remainder are privately owned, citing Lowe’s and Home Depot as examples.
She indicated that two Flock cameras had already been installed and showed maps of where all 11 would be located. One will be at the DMV on Patton Avenue. Others will be at the Lyman traffic circle and at the intersections of Louisiana and Patton, Haywood and State, Hanover and State, Amboy and Michigan, South French Broad and Hilliard, Merrimon and Marcellus, and London and Chapel; two will be near the Asheville Mall.
The locations were all hotspots for either crime or traffic incidents. This alone signaled criminals to disperse and urged drivers to exercise caution. Stepp stated that according to APD statistics from the last three years, 37% of the city’s crimes, 40% of its violent crimes, 27% of its traffic collisions, and 35% of its gun discharges had occurred within half a mile of these locations.
She added that while the APD remains “69 officers down,” it is important to utilize technology “as a force multiplier.”