The Metro Nashville Police Department and Mayor John Cooper’s administration are forging ahead with a proposal to implement a countywide license plate reader program in Nashville. The move comes amid unanswered questions and criticism from Metro councilmembers regarding the timing of a public hearing.
License plate readers are high-speed cameras that capture images of the license plate of every vehicle that passes. In October, the finance department quietly issued a request for quotation, soliciting bids from LPR vendors in a multi-round process to include review of written proposals and a 10-day “field evaluation.” Cost information will not be provided until the final round. Initial proposals were due in mid-November, but there’s no specified award date or anticipated length of evaluation.
Now the mayor’s administration has filed a resolution for the Metro Council’s Dec. 6 meeting, requesting the legislative body’s approval to move forward with acquiring and deploying LPRs throughout Nashville. Before voting, the council will hold a public hearing on the issue. Most Metro contracts are awarded administratively, though the council has the ability to place additional requirements on the procurement process. In 2017, Councilmember Dave Rosenberg introduced a bill to require a public hearing and vote by the council before Metro government agencies implement any new surveillance technology.
Until now, this public hearing requirement has never been triggered. After a legislative battle lasting more than a year, the council passed a bill in February to pave the way for the MNPD and other Metro agencies to use license plate readers. Police departments can use LPRs to flag cars on a “hot list” of Amber Alerts, Silver Alerts and missing vehicles; they can also save the data for later use in criminal investigations.
Proponents of the controversial technology, including Mayor Cooper, tap into a public perception of threats to public safety that is at odds with data showing historically low levels of crime. TJ Ducklo, Cooper’s chief communications officer, tells the Scene: “License plate readers are a proven and effective technology to combat violent crimes underpinned by stolen vehicles; pedestrian and cyclist hit-and-runs; highly dangerous street racing; auto thefts, carjackings and other missing persons situations.”
Opponents cite concerns over privacy and disproportionately negative effects of policing on marginalized communities. LPR vendors are quick to claim drastic decreases in crime in jurisdictions that implement their technology as evidence of their success. But peer-reviewed research shows middling results on reduction of certain property crimes and little to no impact on violent crime.
Five years ago, Cooper — then an at-large councilmember — voted in favor of a bill to prohibit Metro from using LPRs. Explaining the shift in the mayor’s position, Ducklo says, “In 2017, then-Councilmember Cooper did not support use of broad surveillance technologies because there were no appropriate guardrails or limitations yet implemented to protect Nashvillians’ privacy — in stark contrast to the LPR legislation passed by council this past February, which mandates multiple privacy safeguards, use restrictions and access limits.” Cooper did not advance an alternative proposal at the time of the 2017 bill’s passage.
The legislation also includes a requirement that MNPD develop several sets of publicly available policies to govern their use of LPRs. As of press time, MNPD has no policies available for review, with spokesperson Don Aaron stating simply that a policy was “in development.”
When the council meets on Dec. 6 to consider the administration’s resolution, its members will need to determine that the benefits outweigh the costs; that the proposal will safeguard civil liberties and civil rights; and that no alternative with “a lesser economic cost or impact upon civil rights or civil liberties would be as effective.” And they’ll be asked to make those determinations without knowing who the vendor or vendors will be; without knowing the cost of the program; and without time to review the policies MNPD will be using to govern implementation — a proposition Rosenberg describes as “the equivalent of closing our eyes and hoping for the best.”
One proposal will likely come from Vigilant Solutions, an industry leader with a history of dubious data use and privacy practices. Aaron tells the Scene that in September 2021, Vigilant loaned the department a mobile LPR trailer. He says the LPR wasn’t used to initiate any stops or aid in any investigations — only as a tool to help the department “better understand how LPR systems and equipment work” — and that it was “returned to [Vigilant parent company] Motorola months ago.”
Metro Councilmember At-Large Bob Mendes and others have criticized the administration’s decision to hold the hearing now. “I think the Cooper administration is making a terrible mistake by piling public hearings about the racetrack into the same time period as public hearings about the football stadium and then tossing a public hearing about license plate readers in, all during the holiday season,” Mendes tells the Scene. He adds, “I think they’re feeling pressure to get ‘their agenda’ done before we get to the budget season and subsequent election,” and in the process, “creating a legislative pace that’s unfair to the council and to the public.”
In response, Ducklo tells the Scene that “the procurement process that generated the current resolution began months ago and was only recently completed,” and the resolution “was then promptly filed … and scheduled for public hearing at the next available council meeting.”
If the council approves the resolution, the MNPD will carry out a six-month pilot program. At the end of the pilot, the police department will have to ask the Metro Council for approval to permanently implement LPRs. Ducklo cites this “added safeguard” as “yet another reason why Mayor Cooper believes this is the appropriate next step.”
But Rosenberg sees the pilot as something of a smokescreen. “In the same way the argument now is, ‘This is just a pilot, let’s attach these things,’ ” he says, “the argument [in six months] will be, ‘We’ve spent the money, we’ve gone through the trouble of installing them, and it would be a waste of resources to just take them down.’ ”
To Rosenberg, the pilot is “an effective red herring, but a sucker’s move.”
Residents can weigh in at the Metro Council's Dec. 6 meeting, 6:30 p.m. at the Metro Public Courthouse.
