Community Oversight Board doesn’t side with license plate readers in Tennessee

By JOYLYN BUKOVAC

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    NASHVILLE, Tennessee (WSMV) — License plate readers are used in Nashville suburbs like Mount Juliet and Belle Meade, but whether these cameras should be installed within the city has been a controversial debate. Automatic license plate readers take pictures of every license plate and car that passes them. The cameras can be used to find reckless drivers, people wanted by police, and people involved in an AMBER Alert or Silver Alert.

Even though license plate readers (LPR) can be used during investigations, most Community Oversight Board (COB) members are against the cameras being used in the city because of possible risks. Some members are concerned about how police officers would use these cameras and how accurate the system would be.

“What we’ve heard from advocates is that the error rate can be quite high with up to a third of license plate reads being incorrect,” Community Oversight Board Lead Research Analyst Peter Vielehr said, “That level of risk is something that the board decided that they are not willing to support in any form.”

“Across the country they’ve shown where those hot lists have shown the wrong person and we’ve even had that locally,” explained Jill Fitcheard, executive director of the Community Oversight Board.

Some community members also fear these cameras would infringe on their privacy.

“Blindly checking people, that’s just an invasion of privacy,” one community member said. “If they are chasing a criminal and they can keep track of him that way, 100% I’m on board.”

“We’ve had experts from privacy organizations coming to the board to talk about different examples of how privacy has been impacted by license plate readers around the country and they pointed to examples where people’s data has been breached, where there’s been disproportionate impact on communities of color, as well as concerns around police departments conducting appropriate auditing and tracking of the license plate reader technology,” said Vielehr.

Vielehr said if Metro Council passes a bill allowing license plate readers to be used within the city, the COB will provide oversight to the fullest extent of their authority to ensure the residents’ civil rights are not violated.

Council is expected to discuss one proposed LPR bill during their meeting on Tuesday, December 21. They will discuss both proposed LPR bills further in January.

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