The City of Greer is continuing to look at its use of automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) within city limits, holding a special City Council meeting on the issue Tuesday evening.
Greer has been under a 90-day suspension of its ALPR technology since Aug. 21, which has since been extended indefinitely to allow for public input. The council received an update from Greer Police Chief Matt Hamby on Tuesday, outlining proposed policy changes the department would implement if the cameras were brought back online.
“The 90-day moratorium was an opportunity to say, ‘Hang on. Let’s cease our use and analyze,’” said Greer City Administrator Andy Merriman. “We were able to go back and look at our policies, figure out where we had some weaknesses and give council the opportunity to discuss and understand what it is that is being used.”
The Greer Police Department owns 10 Flock-branded automatic license plate readers. According to department officials, Greer Police uses its Flock cameras for three purposes — post-crime searches, wanted or stolen vehicle alerts, and alerts on a local hotlist of vehicles related to a series of crimes.
Hamby discussed with the council multiple planned changes to ALPR technology use in the Greer Police Department, if council approves resuming use of the technology. Here’s a look at what those changes would look like:
Every search using ALPR technology would require a case number associated with it.
Every search would be documented in an incident report.
Search access would be limited to only command staff and Criminal Investigations Team members, whereas before it was any sworn officer.
Data retention would be reduced from 30 days to 14 days, with data automatically deleted after 14 days.
Quarterly audits of ALPR searches would be completed by the investigations captain.
Yearly training would be conducted on proper ALPR use.
A transparency portal would be added to the city website.
The council will hold a public input session on ALPRs later this month. That session will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 24, at 5:30 p.m. in Greer City Hall.
GreerNews will continue to follow the ALPR moratorium as it progresses. For more information on the Greer City Council or its activities, visit the city’s website.
