The Olympia Police Department recently announced a new effort to combat auto theft by installing automated license plate reading cameras, though privacy advocates warn the technology could lead to over surveillance and create targets for data breaches.
Similar automated camera programs have spread throughout the country in recent years as police have touted their ability to find stolen and wanted cars in real time.
Some agencies and law enforcement groups claim it deters car theft and prevents other crimes involving stolen vehicles, such as commercial burglaries and armed robberies. The cameras can also be used for AMBER and Silver alerts.
In a presentation to the Olympia City Council, Police Chief Rich Allen cited elevated auto theft in recent years, though department data show stolen vehicle reports have been declining without the technology.
According to 2023 data, the city saw a decline in car thefts from the two years prior and recovered all but 14 of the vehicles that were reported stolen. Just over 300 car thefts and attempted thefts were reported—almost 100 more than in 2019 and 2020. The data does not account for other crimes connected to the cars.
More recent figures show stolen vehicle reports have continued to decline in 2024 compared to this time last year.
In addition to Olympia, Allen said the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office and Tumwater Police Department are negotiating contracts with the same manufacturer, Atlanta-based Flock Safety, with the potential for a regional intelligence partnership.
Police in Lakewood, Puyallup, Tukwila, Centralia and Des Moines also contract with the company.
Olympia Police Department's pitch
Allen told the City Council during a presentation last week that the department plans to install 16 license cameras surrounding the Westside Capital Mall area and near I-5 entrances on the city’s east end as a part of a two-year pilot project. Allen said police officials and crime analysts identified the locations from crime data the department collects.
Allen said most of the city’s stolen cars are left in a neighboring jurisdiction, often with personal items missing. The chief couldn’t say how often stolen cars are used in more serious crimes when asked by the Council. He said on average officers recover stolen cars in about three days after they’re reported missing.
Because the department is funding the two-year pilot program with a $100,000 grant from the state Department of Commerce, city officials said Allen did not need approval from elected leaders to install the cameras in the city. The police chief compared the cost of the license plate cameras to the department’s body-camera program, which costs about $160,000 dollars a year.
Last month, the City Council’s public safety committee – made up of Mayor Dontae Payne and Council Members Yến Huỳnh and Clark Gilman – expressed informal support for the project in a symbolic vote. Allen gave a similar presentation at that meeting.
The City Council said it plans to evaluate police department crime data and the license plate program’s effectiveness next year.
An Olympia police spokesperson told KNKX the department is still in contract negotiations with Flock Safety and has not set a start date for the program. The city clerk's office told KNKX it had no records of bids from competing camera manufacturers in response to a public records request.
Flock Safety charges departments using their program a flat annual fee of $2,500 per camera, according to the company.
Olympia chief addresses privacy concerns
During the presentation to the full Council, the police chief distinguished the tracking program from other emerging technologies that present risks for bias policing, such as facial recognition and predictive algorithms. But Allen seemed to misunderstand the automated license plate camera technology.
“This is not artificial intelligence. The computer system doesn't do anything with this information. All it does is house it,” Allen said. “It doesn't process it. It doesn't make any interpretations. It just simply houses the information and it takes a human, AKA an investigator, to go into that database and start making some assumptions.”
But the license plate reading technology does use artificial intelligence, according to the manufacturer, Flock Safety. The technology is just a different type from AI language processing tools like ChatGPT.
Mounted on anything from utility poles to garbage trucks, automated license plate cameras take thousands of motion-activated photos of passing cars. Machine learning programs then compare the images and AI descriptions of cars to databases of stolen and wanted vehicles.
Allen also addressed some privacy concerns during the City Council meeting. He said the program will automatically delete unused images within 30 days. It also tracks on a public website each time a law enforcement officer accesses the database, along with the reason for the search.
According to Flock Safety, the automated cameras focus on the rear ends of cars, don’t analyze people or faces and can’t be used for traffic enforcement. The company also says it has not suffered a data breach and uses government-level encryption from Amazon Web Services.
The company also produces automated AI video cameras and gunshot detection technology, similar to the controversial ShotSpotter program being implemented in Seattle and Tacoma.
The ACLU has criticized the company’s lack of transparency about its technology, saying Flock Safety refuses to allow others to test its products. Because the technology is based on cloud computers, others can’t independently analyze it without access from Flock Safety.
An Olympia police spokesperson referred KNKX to Flock Safety and its website for questions about the technology used for the license plate cameras.
Produced with assistance from the Public Media Journalists Association Editor Corps funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.
