The Cedar Rapids Police Department plans to drop its contract with Flock cameras in February and exchange them for Axon automated license plate readers, or ALPRs.
Axon is a law enforcement technology company that’s already integrated in many departments through popular products like tasers and body-worn cameras.
Captain Cody Estling, who leads the Criminal Investigations Division, told a Tuesday night town hall that Axon offers ease of use and data privacy.
“The Axon benefits are that it provides local control over the ALPR data,” Estling says. “There’s integration within our existing technology Axon ecosystem which is kind of an overarching theme, providing that ecosystem that allows us to be more efficient.”
Cedar Rapids has 70 license plate readers and the number of cameras will remain the same.
Captain Doug Doyle says Axon cameras will integrate seamlessly into the rest of the department’s Axon system products. Doyle says Axon, unlike Flock, does -not- keep a central hub of license plate data, as local departments keep it themselves.
“We are the only ones who have access to that. Axon doesn’t have access to that system unless we grant it to them,” Doyle says. “The only time that they’ve been granted that is during the set up process and after that process is done, we remove it.”
Cedar Rapids officials say they do not share data with federal law enforcement agencies like ICE.
