Williamson County Board of Commissioners approve license plate readers on highways

WILLIAMSON COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — The Williamson County Board of Commissioners voted in favor of bringing license plate readers to the area at their Monday meeting.

The Council passed the motion with 21 votes to approve, one opposing vote and one council member abstaining.

Commissioner Jennifer Mason presented the proposal for license plate readers to be installed on state highway right-of-ways, which are the grassy space that runs along highways.

“I think that LPRs are a huge tool that we have in our prosecution and law enforcement basket,” Mason said. “We have an influx of individuals coming from other counties into our county, stealing cars, breaking into cars and racing these cars back across county lines, and we’re catching these vehicles on license plate readers. We’re following them sometimes throughout the state figuring out where these vehicles are ending up.”

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Mason acknowledged concerns about LPR data being handed off to second or third parties, stating in her experience working closely with law enforcement as a Deputy District Attorney General , the information is not used outside of criminal investigations.

Williamson County Sheriff Jeff Hughes also cleared some concerns about where the LPR data would be shared.

“We do not share that data with anyone outside of law enforcement. We can approve requests from other law enforcement entities,” he said. “We own that data. It’s not subject to open public record because it is not part of the Freedom of Information Act.”

Commissioner David O’Neil said it is important to know that LPRs do not use facial-recognition technology. The purpose of the system is to identify license plate tags connected to cars that are connected to criminal activity. If a vehicle is reported stolen in law enforcement databases, police will be notified in real time if the vehicle is captured on an LPR.

Councilmembers reiterated that LPR cameras are different from stop-light cameras, and will not be used for minor traffic violations like speeding tickets.

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According to Commissioner Mary Smith, the information provided by the LPR camera vendor agency used in Williamson County states LPR camera data is encrypted and only stored for 30 days before it is purged.

The cameras are currently funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. However, all data captured by the cameras is owned by Williamson County law enforcement.

The resolution being passed approves the Sheriff’s Office to install and operate automated LPRs on state highway right-of-ways.

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