# 2023 Pre-Flock LPR Support Letter to ARDOT
A single-page Mayor-signed letter dated May 15, 2023, addressed to the Arkansas Department of Transportation, supporting Conway Police Department's automatic license plate reader procurement. The letter pre-dates the Flock procurement by ~19 months and the Conway PD Flock-Safety contract by ~19 months; it is the **earliest record in the corpus of Mayor's-Office support for ALPR deployment in Conway**, and the precursor that the February 2025 Flock-Safety-Poles support letter would later mirror.
## What's inside
Two files cover the same exchange — the `.msg` Outlook item and a `.pdf` rendering of the same email plus the attached signed letter.
`05.15.msg` and `05.15.pdf`:
| Time (CT) | From | To | Substance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-05-15 2:33 PM | Felicia Rogers | Shawanna Rodgers | *"SR, Can you prepare for BC signature? Fe"* *(BC = Bart Castleberry)* |
| 2023-05-15 3:04 PM | Shawanna Rodgers | Felicia Rogers | *"Sure, no problem."* |
The attached letter, dated May 15, 2023:
> *Arkansas Department of Transportation*
> *10324 Interstate 30*
> *Little Rock, AR 72203-2261*
>
> *To Whom It May Concern:*
>
> *The City of Conway, Arkansas, fully supports using and purchasing of Automated License Plate Readers (ALPR) by the Conway Police Department that will be used throughout our city.*
>
> *If you have any questions regarding the Automated License Plate readers in Conway, please feel free to contact Chief William Tapley @
[email protected].*
>
> *Sincerely,*
> *Bart Castleberry*
> *Mayor*
The letter file is named `05.15.2023_CPD_Automated License Plate Reader_ARDOT_Grant.docx` in the email subject — the file-naming convention identifies the topic as an ARDOT **grant**-related ALPR submission, distinct from the 2025 right-of-way permitting trail.
## Key takeaways
- **The Mayor's Office was already on record supporting ALPR procurement for Conway PD 19 months before the Flock-specific procurement began.** The 2023 letter is vendor-agnostic — it endorses "Automated License Plate Readers" generally. The CPD's pre-Flock LPR program (the [[SkyCop Estimate for Pre-Flock Genetec LPR System]] and Genetec / SkyCop pilot referenced in `PD-2026-477`) is what the 2023 letter supported.
- **The Chief at the time was William Tapley, not Chris Harris.** Chief Tapley's tenure pre-dates Chief Harris's; the 2023 letter is contemporaneous with the Tapley-era LPR pilot. By the time the Flock procurement is initiated (December 2024), Harris is the Chief and Tapley is no longer at CPD.
- **The Mayor's-Office workflow template established here mirrors the 2025-26 ARDOT permitting workflow.** *Rogers → Rodgers → BC signature → return* is the same routing pattern used for the 2025-02-11 Flock-Safety-Poles support letter and the 2026-01 Permit P1948 routing. The Mayor's-Office paper-routing template for ARDOT submissions is consistent across two years and two distinct LPR vendor relationships.
- **The reference to an "ARDOT Grant" in the file-naming is unresolved.** ARDOT's typical engagement with municipal ALPR is permitting-based, not grant-based. Whether ARDOT ran an ALPR-grant program in 2023 (and Conway PD applied for grant funding), or whether the "Grant" suffix is loose internal naming, is not visible in this production. Documents referenced as "Grant" in the file system do not have to be grant applications; the naming is internal.
## People and orgs mentioned
- [[Bart Castleberry]] — Mayor; signs the support letter.
- [[Felicia Rogers]] — Chief of Staff; initiates the routing.
- [[Shawanna Rodgers]] — Mayor's Office assistant; prepares for signature.
- [[William Tapley]] — Conway Police Chief at the time; designated ALPR contact on the letter. The email address quoted, `
[email protected]`, is misspelled in the source ("conwayarkanas") and would not deliver as written.
- [[Arkansas Department of Transportation]] — addressee.
## Concepts invoked
- [[Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR)]]
- [[ARDOT Right-of-Way Permitting for ALPR]] — the precursor pattern.
## Cross-references
- [[_overview]] (`FOIA-2026-127`).
- [[ARDOT Right-of-Way Permitting — Case 941655 and Permit SP-08-2025-0036]] — the 2025-26 successor to this 2023 precursor.
- [[SkyCop Estimate for Pre-Flock Genetec LPR System]] (`PD-2026-477`) — the contemporaneous SkyCop / pre-Flock LPR pilot.
## Open questions / follow-ups
1. **The 2023 ARDOT "Grant" program.** Whether ARDOT ran an ALPR-grant program in 2023, and what Conway PD applied for, is not resolved in this production. A request to ARDOT's grant-administration office may resolve.
2. **The Tapley-era LPR program's deployment footprint.** What LPR cameras, if any, were actually installed in Conway in 2023 under Chief Tapley is not visible here. The 2022 SkyCop estimate documented in `PD-2026-477` priced a pilot; whether that pilot was procured, deployed, or shelved is open.