License Plate Readers Installed at Two Major Bellevue Intersections

Bellevue, Nebraska – July 5, 2022 – Press Release from the Bellevue Police Department

Public safety is the top priority of the Bellevue Police Department. While we firmly believe in the value of traditional strategies of policing, such as proactive patrol, increasing tools at our disposal for officers enhances our ability to solve crimes and ultimately protect our citizens. From cruiser computers and drones, to VR simulators and body cameras, technology continues to evolve as we move further into the 21st century.

In an effort to constantly innovate and improve, the Department has purchased license plate reader cameras. The cameras were installed at two fixed locations in the city, Ft. Crook Road North at Chandler and 15th Street and Cornhusker. The readers will be utilized to identify vehicles that are the subject of police investigations and complaints. The technology allows for officer notification immediately when a “wanted” vehicle passes through one of the locations. An alert is then sent out to the officers notifying them of the location, direction of travel, along with a picture of the license plate and a picture of the portion of the vehicle to which the plate was affixed.

A vehicle becomes “wanted” when a law enforcement agency inputs the vehicle registration plate into the system for a set time period, along with the reason why the plate was entered. Examples of a “wanted” status may include license plates that are stolen, involved in an AMBER Alert, or were involved in the commission of a crime. While every license plate that proceeds through the intersection is read, only plates that have been entered as “wanted’ activate a notification to officers.

In order to relieve privacy concerns, no personally identifiable information from the license plate is saved; We only save the actual license plate numbers. Additionally, the information is automatically deleted after 180 days unless it is used as evidence or if it is subject to a preservation request or the subject of a warrant, subpoena, or court order.
In addition to the two fixed locations, the Department also has plans to implement this system on select marked Police vehicles, allowing them to be utilized throughout the City. The mobile units can be directed where
needed to focus on problem areas for special attention.

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The Nebraska legislature in 2018 enacted the following legislation governing license plate readers:

(1) Adopt a policy governing use of the system and conspicuously post the policy on the governmental entity’s Internet website or, if no website is available, in its main office;

(2) Adopt a privacy policy to ensure that captured plate data is not shared in violation of the Automatic License Plate Reader Privacy Act or any other law and conspicuously post the privacy policy on its Internet website or, if no website is available, in its main governmental office; and

(3)(a) Report annually to the Nebraska Commission on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice on its automatic license plate reader practices and usage. The report shall also be conspicuously posted on the governmental entity’s Internet website or, if no website is available, in its main office. The report shall include the following information, if captured by the automatic license plate reader system:

(1) The names of each list against which captured plate data was checked, the number of confirmed matches, and the number of matches that upon further investigation did not correlate to an alert; and

(ii) The number of manually-entered license plate numbers under subsection (3) of section 60-3204, the number of confirmed matches, and the number of matches that upon further investigation did not correlate to an alert.

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The Bellevue Police Department currently has posted on its website, our License Plate Reader Policy https://bellevuepd.com/. The Department is committed to following this law and respecting the privacy rights of its citizens, while at the same time, aggressively pursuing those that violate Nebraska law. Questions pertaining to the LPR system can be directed to Captain Dargy at 402-293-3100.

Included photo is a file photo and not a picture of the actual cameras installed in Bellevue