Service
ALPR Program Audit
A full review of what your plate reader system is doing, who has been querying it, and what would come out if somebody filed a records request tomorrow.
What this is
Most agencies have never looked at their own plate reader program from the outside. The system was installed, it produces alerts, and the alerts mostly work. Nobody has pulled the query logs. Nobody has checked which outside agencies can see the data. Nobody knows how many stops ended with the driver released because the record was wrong.
That is not negligence. It is a workload problem. The tools to check are buried in a vendor dashboard and nobody was given the time. But it means the first honest look at your program often happens in a public meeting, under questioning, in front of a reporter.
This is that look, done first, in private, by somebody who has run these systems.
What gets examined
- Query logs for the last twelve months. Who searched, how often, and whether a case number or stated purpose was attached.
- External access. Which outside agencies can see your scans, whether any sharing was enabled by default, and whether federal access is on.
- Hotlist sources. Where your lists come from, how often they refresh, and how records get cleared.
- Alert outcomes. How many alerts became stops, and how many of those stops ended without an offense.
- Signed access agreements, and whether current practice matches what they require.
- Written policy against actual practice, and both against whatever governs you.
- Training records. What officers were actually taught, and when.
- Retention. What you are holding, for how long, and whether that matches your policy.
In Texas
Section B.5 of the DPS License Plate Reader User Agreement gives the Department authority to inspect and audit your equipment, records and operations, and requires you to produce use and dissemination records immediately on request. That right survives for four years after the agreement ends.
A Texas agency that could not produce those records this week is not merely unprepared for a council meeting. It is unprepared for the party that can switch off its access.
What you get
A written findings document. Each finding states what was examined, what the records show, and how confident that conclusion is. Where the evidence is thin, it says so. Findings are ranked by what would cause the most damage if it surfaced publicly before you fixed it.
Then a remediation plan with the order to do things in, and an estimate of what each item takes. Some fixes are an afternoon. Some are a policy revision and a training cycle.
Who this is for
Agencies with a contract renewal coming, agencies facing an open records request, agencies whose council has started asking questions, and agencies who would simply rather know.
It is also useful for a city manager who needs an independent read before recommending a renewal, and does not want the assessment to come from the department or the vendor.
What it is not
It is not an audit in the accounting sense and it carries no certification. It is a professional review by someone with thirty years in the field. Where a formal legal opinion is needed, that is work for your city attorney, and I will say so.