Anchorage police officers will soon be able to automatically scan license plates and scour a network of public and private cameras throughout the city.
The expansion into additional surveillance is part of an $11.8 million technology upgrade contract approved by the Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday.
Police say the upgrade will facilitate evidence collection and aid their ability to respond with real-time information. Others are concerned that the new tools, especially automated license plate readers, could lead to potential invasions of privacy.
The five-year contract approved with Arizona-based Axon Enterprise on Tuesday includes training, technical support, new drones, stun guns and body cameras. The Assembly also approved a $375,000 contract for an artificial intelligence service to aid investigations.
Police say the initiative builds on other recent modernization efforts, such as outfitting officers with body-worn cameras and expanding the department’s drone program, and will result in more efficient investigations and faster response times, among other public safety improvements.
Officials said the department will pay for the changes through a $1.8 million bond voters approved in 2021 to fund body cameras and other technology, and will use money in its budget to cover any remaining expenses.
Anchorage Police Department Chief Sean Case said in an interview Friday that the surveillance will be used responsibly.
“We don’t just view this as a tech upgrade,” Case said.
Police haven’t started using license plate readers yet, he said. That likely won’t occur for at least a few more months while the department finalizes its rules for using those tools.
But the department has started to use another new surveillance system: a center where police can monitor a network of public and private security camera video feeds. Police said they plan to use the feeds to help identify suspects and respond to incidents.
The department’s building at 4501 Elmore Road houses what the department is calling a “Real-Time Crime Center,” where plans call for officers and department staff to monitor video from up to 750 camera feeds. The center is operating on a limited scale now, with one employee and about 15 cameras located at APD properties and Town Square Park.
Police plan to add feeds from private security cameras at Anchorage homes and businesses after getting permission from owners, Case said.
The idea came from feedback received from the business community and some neighborhoods, he said, adding that the interest in giving police access to video feeds was surprising given past criticism of red-light cameras.
It wasn’t clear when the department will be able to ramp up the real-time monitoring system. Case said the department has limited staffing and is waiting to see what kind of community feedback comes in.
The initiative also involves the license plate readers, a concept that the department first suggested several years ago.
Police officials told Assembly members the department was considering adopting automatic license plate readers in 2023, saying departments nationwide had increasingly been using the technology to spot stolen vehicles, track crime suspects or gather evidence.
The capability, Case said, is already built into department vehicles’ dashboard camera systems. Scanning license plates will be the last of the department’s tech upgrades, he said, because that’s the tool that the public seems to be most uneasy with.
“Turning it on is actually very easy. That’s the easy part. We already have everything we need,” Case said. “It’s the process we want to make sure we get nailed down.”
During Tuesday’s Assembly meeting, Case said the plate readers will target more significant crimes or missing people. He said the readers will be programmed to ignore license plates tied to warrants for minor misdemeanor warrants or offenses.
Access to license plate information will be limited to officers and staff assigned to the new video center while license plate data will also likely be retained for less time than body camera footage, he said.
Anchorage Assembly Chair Christopher Constant was the lone member to vote against the department’s technology contract on Tuesday. Constant has expressed concerns about the contract, saying he felt the vote was rushed given worries about privacy invasions.
But after working with Case to outline how police will use the technologies, Constant said in an interview that he’s more confident that the department will prioritize privacy.
“It’s a good thing in the right hands,” he said of the surveillance tools police will now be using.
The ACLU of Alaska said they submitted a comment ahead of Tuesday’s vote asking the Assembly to table to decision to allow for additional public input and clearer information about what “guardrails” police would put in place, said spokesperson Meghan Barker.
“These things are not clear,” she said.
An annual audit and quarterly reviews will serve as guardrails to assure those who may have concerns about invasions of privacy or data collection that the new tools are being used responsibly, Case said.
In the coming months, he said, the department will also finalize policies that will determine how and when the new surveillance systems will be used.
The department plans to present those policies to the municipal Public Health and Safety Committee to gather feedback, Case said.