ALPRs: Who's Paying for Them?

The short answer is you, the taxpayer. The explosive growth in automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) has caught many communities off guard. This is especially true as details about their capabilities far beyond simply flagging stolen vehicles become widely known. Yet few citizens stop to ask the foundational question: who is paying for this rapid expansion? As the old saying goes, whenever in doubt, follow the money. Background on ALPR TechnologyALPR technology is not new. Law enforcement agencies began adopting early systems in the late 1990s and 2000s. Adoption grew steadily, particularly among larger metropolitan departments: By 2009: Over one-third of law enforcement agencies with 100 or more officers used ALPRs (Source). By 2016: Roughly two-thirds to three-quarters had direct access to ALPR data (Source PDF). By 2020: Around 72% of large agencies deployed ALPRs regularly (Source). For two decades, rollouts remained gradual. Systems were expensive, hardware-intensive, and…