Cameras on top of the car driven by Guadalupe County Deputy Constable Jesse Rosales record license plates of passing cars with the Vigilant Solutions license recognition reader in Schertz on Feb. 16. ▲ Plate readers ▲

About two years ago, Austin police began exploring the acquisition of equipment that automatically reads license plates with the intention of becoming better at finding stolen vehicles.

But as plans developed, police ideas became grander as they considered expanding the scope of the program to collect data from several hundreds of thousands of drivers each day and allow police access to a vast license plate database, according to an American-Statesman analysis of more than two years of reports, memos, contracts and emails obtained through a public information request.

The automatic license plate readers — or ALPRs — are essentially high-speed cameras that snap photos of license plates and use software to check plate numbers against a database of stolen cars. The technology has been pitched by police as a way to reduce auto thefts, increase the number of stolen vehicles recovered and save taxpayer dollars by indirectly reducing local insurance costs.

But the equipment's ability to track local drivers' daily movements has ruffled privacy advocates.

An analysis of the documents found that police have proposed expanding the use of ALPRs to:

Collect data on all drivers entering the city through major highways by documenting the time and date through a network of cameras affixed on Interstate 35, MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1), U.S. 183, U.S. 290 and Texas 71, which would essentially encircle the city.

Create so-called "virtual stakeouts" by using up to five trailers equipped with automatic license plate readers that can be moved throughout the city, allowing police to aim the cameras at specific locations.

Collect license plate data from time-sensitive crime scenes, such as robberies or homicides.

The implications for law enforcement are compelling. ALPRs are considered by police to be a "force multiplier" — a way to make policing more effective without increasing the number of officers on the street. At its best, an ALPR could help a cop catch the plate of a car wanted in an Amber Alert and lead to the rescue of a kidnapped child. At its most worrisome, privacy advocates say, it could be used to monitor drivers who frequent certain religious centers or buildings associated with political groups.

Privacy advocates also worry about possible abuse because of the manufacturers' policy of maintaining all data collected by the cameras unless directed otherwise.

"The longer they keep the data and the more data points you have, the more you can learn about a person's behavior — where someone goes to church, what doctors they have or where they slept at night," said Dave Maass, an investigative researcher at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy watchdog group. "Maybe we can predict where somebody is going to be, and we can tell you who their associates are. It can be very invasive over time."

Data collected from Austin police plate readers would be held indefinitely for now because no policy has been formalized. However, documents show police officials have suggested data retention of one year.

Earlier this month, police started a $50,000 pilot program, which did not require Austin City Council approval, that affixed cameras to three unmarked patrol vehicles. Officers began uploading plate data to a server maintained by Vigilant Solutions, the California-based company that makes the equipment and its software.

Vigilant officials confirmed that Austin police now have access to a license plate database made possible by plate readers attached to Vigilant's private clients, mainly tow truck drivers and repo men.

Already, the readers have led police to track down at least three stolen cars, including one involved in a carjacking, according to Cmdr. Ely Reyes of the department's technology unit.

The pilot program is a "proof of concept" in which Austin police will test the equipment for 30 to 60 days before deciding if they want to approach the City Council to expand the purchase for more cameras at a cost of about $370,000, the documents obtained by the Statesman showed.

If fully funded, the program would install five plate readers in patrol command vehicles, put four in cars used by the organized crime division and magnetically attach two portable cameras to any car. Police also would strategically place five portable trailers for investigations, the documents said.

An original proposal asked for cameras to be placed on all of Austin's major highways, but that was amended to reduce costs. Instead, police would ask for a bank of cameras to be placed in far North Austin on I-35 to track southbound traffic as it moves into town and likewise in far South Austin for traffic headed north.

The highway cameras lend themselves to monitoring drug or human trafficking, and police consider them a valuable tool in those cases, the documents showed.

At least one other Central Texas community, though, remains wary about the license plate readers. Last month Kyle City Council Member Daphne Tenorio called the technology "a little too Big Brother-ish" at a meeting where she moved to rescind the city's no-cost contract with Vigilant Solutions.

Kyle's agreement with Vigilant was akin to what was being used by some officers in Guadalupe County. The technology would flag drivers with any warrant, including those for unpaid traffic citations.

Vigilant would provide the equipment free as long as it got 25 percent of the fees paid, according to Vigilant Vice President Joe Harzewski, who made his case for the technology to the council before members voted 6-1 to cancel Kyle's contract.

"It's a little too invasive for me," Tenorio said in making the motion. "And while I understand the data isn't quite kept here and it is in Virginia and locked away, I am uncomfortable with it."

The council had approved entering Vigilant's program in January but began questioning the deal after it became unclear whether Vigilant could sell the data to a private company.

Harzewski said Vigilant kept its law enforcement data on a separate server from business data and said that any private company working with Vigilant will not have access to the data.

All Texas law enforcement agencies using Vigilant's ALPRs do share data, Harzewski said. Vigilant's software allows for interagency sharing to be turned on and off at the push of a button, he said.

Harzewski said the company's law enforcement server has never been hacked but noted that data collected by the license plate readers has been abused in the past.

"We've had people hand out access where they shouldn't have," he said. "We give bulletproof technology to our clients, and they're free to do with it as they see fit."

Vigilant estimates that it has collected 3.5 billion license plate impressions, according to company documents provided to Austin police, and is collecting the impressions at the rate of 100 million a month.

ALPRs have been proposed for uses that worry privacy advocates, such as a proposal in Los Angeles to send letters to the homes of drivers whose cars have been recorded driving through areas known for a high amount of prostitution.

Reyes said Austin police would use license plate data stored from vehicles without warrants.

"If we have the data available, why wouldn't we use it?" Reyes said. "I think what is important is that the information that we collect is for law enforcement purposes only."