The Ithaca Police Department plans to place automated cameras with license plate recognition technology in locations across the city.
The police department is partnering with Flock Safety, a technology company that uses AI to collect images of license plates.
“Essentially, we are looking to use it to investigate crimes to help find missing people, people that are vulnerable or reported missing, stolen vehicles, things of that nature,” acting Ithaca Police Chief Ted Schwartz said. “This is not something where we would have someone live-time monitoring.”
Schwartz said the cameras will be automated, rather than live, and that images will be deleted from the system after 30 days. He said there will be 20 cameras installed around the city, and that Broome and Chemung counties have similar contracts with Flock Safety.
“There will be audits quarterly on this to ensure that’s being complied with, because we understand that there can be concerns about using technology in this way, if it's not used appropriately, or the concern about potential abuse," Schwartz said.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has pushed back against Flock Safety and other similar companies, arguing the use of AI technology to record license plate information is invasive and prone to civil rights abuses. Several members of the City Administration Committee asked questions about the new cameras during the committee meeting last week.
“I think it's good that this is not going to be relying on biometric data and doing everything it can do, being proactive, about avoiding those issues of profiling and whatnot,” Alderperson Jorge Defendini said. “We can make technology as objective and devoid of any emotion or bias as possible. But the coding behind it plays a role in that.”
Schwartz and a spokesperson from Flock Safety said the city’s use of the technology would be transparent, and that data collected could not be sold to third parties.