# Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR) A camera-and-software system that **photographs vehicle license plates, performs optical character recognition, timestamps and geolocates each read, and compares the read against one or more "hot lists" of plates of interest**. Each read is also stored as a searchable database record; the database can be queried by plate, by location, by time window, or by other vehicle features. In law-enforcement use, hits against hot lists generate real-time alerts; the database itself enables retrospective investigation. ## How it appears in the corpus - **Flock Safety Falcon ®** is the specific ALPR product Conway PD has deployed under the [[Flock Safety Order Form and Contract]]. Twenty cameras, fee-bundled into the $60K/year recurring price. - **Genetec** is the pre-Flock vendor — first identified in [[AR - Conway PD - Welcome to Flock! (3) - Flock Kickoff Slide Deck]] ("Genetec cams are LPR"), and now documented by the 2022 procurement estimate produced in `PD-2026-477`: a **Genetec AutoVu** platform (Genetec Security Center 5.10 with the AutoVu LPR module), sold and installed by [[SkyCop, Inc.]], a Memphis surveillance-systems integrator. Six "stationary" cameras, installed since 2023, running on a server "owned and operated by the Conway Police Department." See [[SkyCop Estimate for Pre-Flock Genetec LPR System]] and [[LPR Report First Half 2025]]. - **Axon Fleet 3** is a *mobile* ALPR system — a license-plate-recognition function activated on in-car patrol cameras rather than fixed roadside cameras — trialed by the [[Fayetteville Police Department]] from February to April 2026. Axon is the second non-Flock ALPR vendor in the corpus, after Genetec. See [[Axon Fleet 3 ALPR Trial]]. - The **[[Pulaski County Sheriff's Office]]** operates a Flock ALPR system. Its January 1 – May 19, 2026 six-month practice-and-usage report — compiled under Ark. Code § 12-12-1805 — records 1,422,898 plates scanned and 2,092 confirmed alerts, with 79% of alerts driven by other agencies' custom hot lists shared into PCSO's networks ([[PCSO ALPR Six-Month Practice and Usage Report]], [[PCSO ALPR Offense-Type Search Usage]]). - Conway PD's semi-annual LPR reports disclose **H1 2024 — 6,316,810 reads / 2,007 hits / 3 logged successful outcomes** on the six pre-Flock cameras, and **H1 2025 — 7,458,633 reads / 3,327 hits / 4 logged successful outcomes** on the 14-camera (6 Genetec + 8 Flock) system. The two figures come from two versions of the H1 2025 report produced in different productions; see the contradiction callout on [[LPR Report First Half 2025]] and [[LPR Report First Half 2025 (PD-2026-477 Copy)]]. - **CPD Policy 800-32** is the local policy governing ALPR use. Effective 2013, revised 1/18/2023 (R3) under Chief William Tapley. See [[CPD Policy 800-32 — License Plate Reader Vehicle Operations]]. - **The Arkansas Automatic License Plate Reader System Act** (Ark. Code Ann. §§ 12-12-1801 – 1808) is the state statute governing ALPR use, retention, sharing, public reporting, and disclosure; Conway PD invokes it in `PD-2026-477` to withhold operational records. See [[Arkansas Automatic License Plate Reader System Act]]. - The technical model — read + hot-list-comparison + database-storage — is foundational to every other concept in the investigation: hot lists, network sharing, federal LE data access, and audit logs are all downstream of the per-read data structure. ## Stakeholders - **Camera-owning agency** ([[Conway Police Department]]) — owns the local fleet, controls the platform admin role. - **Vendor** ([[Flock Safety, Inc.]] for the current 20-camera fleet; the legacy 6-camera fleet is a Genetec AutoVu platform supplied by the integrator [[SkyCop, Inc.]]) — provides hardware, software, cloud (Flock) or on-premises (Genetec/SkyCop) storage, and the platform administration tooling. - **Data-sharing counterparties** — any organization that has been configured as a sharing-partner in the platform; see [[SharedNetworks 2025-12-17 Snapshot]]. - **Public** — under CPD Policy 800-32's Section D.2 and Ark. Code § 12-12-1805, the semi-annual LPR statistical report is compiled "into a format sufficient to allow the general public to review" it and kept for 18 months; see [[LPR Report First Half 2025]]. ## Timeline - 2013 — the Arkansas Automatic License Plate Reader System Act is enacted (Act 2013, No. 1491); see [[Arkansas Automatic License Plate Reader System Act]]. - 2013-08-30 — CPD Policy 800-32 first effective (text in [[AR - Conway PD - Welcome to Flock!]]). - 2022-04-11 — SkyCop, Inc. estimates the Genetec AutoVu LPR system for Conway PD ([[SkyCop Estimate for Pre-Flock Genetec LPR System]]). - ~2023 — six Genetec cameras installed (per [[LPR Report First Half 2025]]). - 2023-01-18 — Policy 800-32 R3 signed by then-Chief William Tapley. - 2024-12-13 — Chief Harris pivots Flock procurement to asset-forfeiture funding after Council cuts the cameras from 2025 budget (see [[Morning - Procurement Pivot Thread]]). - 2025-01-23 — Flock onboarding meeting. - 2025-04 — Earliest Flock audit log dated. - 2025-07-01 — Burningham's semi-annual LPR report (two versions of which are in the corpus). - 2025-12-17 — Flock platform cutover (audit-log schema change; SharedNetworks snapshot). - 2026-01-22 — Escambia FL hot-list share to Conway. - 2026-03-12 → 2026-04-08 — Home Depot AR state-wide camera-share rollout to Conway. - 2026-03 → 2026-04 — 5,929 federal-LE plate lookups touch Conway data ([[Federal Searches CSV]]). - 2026-04-17 — Joshua files FOIA `PD-2026-354`. - 2026-04-20 — Burningham relays Conway City Council questions about Flock data security to Flock CSM. - 2026-05-22 — Conway PD completes `PD-2026-477` and withholds the network-sharing, federal-search, hot-list, and pre-April-2025 audit-log categories ([[2026-05 Conway PD PD-2026-477 Withholding Response]]). - 2026-05-22 — Pulaski County SO releases its § 12-12-1805 six-month ALPR usage report on FOIA `#26-808`: 1,422,898 plates scanned, 2,092 alerts ([[2026-05 Pulaski County SO ALPR FOIA Response]]). ## Notes - For deliverables outside the wiki, ALPR terminology should preserve the distinction between (a) the camera-and-OCR system that produces reads, (b) the hot-list comparison engine that generates alerts, and (c) the database that enables retrospective queries. The three are technically and policy-distinct: a system that does (a) and (b) but not (c) does not enable network-sharing or federal-LE queries; a system that does all three (Flock) creates the cross-jurisdictional reach documented here. - ALPR-policy literature (ACLU, EFF, Brennan Center) is a useful reference for any later treatment of policy norms for ALPR retention, sharing, and oversight.