(Bellevue, NE) -- The Bellevue Police Department installs license plate reader cameras.
BPD says they purchased the two cameras in, " an effort to constantly innovate and improve." The department says the cameras were installed at two fixed locations in the city, Ft. Crook Road North at Chandler and 15th Street and Cornhusker. In a press release BPD said, "The readers will be utilized to identify vehicles that are the subject of police investigations and complaints. The technology allows for officer notification immediately when a “wanted” vehicle passes through one of the locations. An alert is then sent out to the officers notifying them of the location, direction of travel, along with a picture of the license plate and a picture of the portion of the vehicle to which the plate was affixed."
The department says a vehicle becomes “wanted” when a law enforcement agency inputs the vehicle registration plate into the system for a set time period, along with the reason why the plate was entered. Examples of a “wanted” status may include license plates that are stolen, involved in an AMBER Alert, or were involved in the commission of a crime. While every license plate that proceeds through the intersection is read, only plates that have been entered as “wanted” activate a notification to officers. BPD says in order to relieve privacy concerns, "No personally identifiable information from the license plate is saved; we only save the actual license plate numbers. Additionally, the information is automatically deleted after 180 days unless it is used as evidence or if it is subject to a preservation request or the subject of a warrant, subpoena, or court order."
In addition to the two fixed locations, the Department also has plans to implement this system on select marked Police vehicles, allowing them to be utilized throughout the City. BPD says the mobile units can be directed where needed to focus on problem areas for special attention.