AUSTIN, Texas — Austin police say their new automated license plate readers are up around Austin and are already helping solve crimes.
The first cameras were installed and fully functional on March 29. Police hoped to have them up by February, but city permitting issues slowed the process.
Austin bought 40 Flock Safety automated license plate readers, and about 20 of them are now mounted on utility poles. The cameras take a photo of the license plate of every vehicle passing by and store the data for seven days. If they capture a plate connected to a certain crime, the system immediately pings police.
"As of, this morning, we've had approximately five stolen vehicles recovered through the use of the Flock system," APD Lt. Michael McCarter said. "We've also been able to use the Flock system surge capacity to lead us to generate leads in several major investigative cases."
McCarter said this is right on time as current auto theft numbers are on par with 2023, which saw a 30% increase from 2022.
While their locations won't be disclosed, APD said the license plate readers will be evenly distributed across the city to make sure one area is not targeted. That, along with how long APD can store the data it gets from these cameras, was a big concern for some who opposed them.
"So, once all of our officers are trained, then we'll activate that function in the in-car system," McCarter said.
By the end of this pilot program, APD will have a separate in-car plate reader system that can also capture this data and connect it to the stationary license plate readers around town.
"Once we get all those systems together, I think it's going to be a very valuable tool to help us both locate stolen vehicles, generate investigative leads, and overall help us solve crime," McCarter said.
Police said it's unclear when all the systems will be up and running.