Kootenai County commissioners approve license plate reader contract

COEUR d’ALENE — Kootenai County commissioners approved a one-year contract with Motorola for automatic license plate reader software to be used in 48 sheriff’s office patrol vehicles. 

Commissioners voted 2-1 to approve the contract, at a cost of $23,758 annually, during a business meeting Monday afternoon. Leslie Duncan, who had expressed reservations about the mobile license plate readers and how long the data they collect will be stored by the sheriff’s office, cast the dissenting vote. 

“The technology has been used,” she said. “It has been beneficial. What we’re talking about is an expansion of it into cars, which will be collecting even more data than our current stationary ones collect.” 

Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris said license plate reader technology has been in use throughout the county for 16 years without issue. 

“It is a great crime prevention tool,” he said. 

During a public forum last week, Norris said license plate readers don’t collect personally identifiable information. Any license plates that are read are compared against a “hot list” of plates associated with stolen vehicles or people who are missing or wanted on criminal charges. The readers don’t capture images of a vehicle’s occupants. 

“We want to make sure that our civil liberties are protected here in Kootenai County,” Norris told commissioners Monday. “We also want to make sure we are safe from the criminal element here in Kootenai County.” 

Duncan was unpersuaded by the sheriff’s assertions that no data breaches or abuse of information have occurred. 

“It doesn’t matter if we’ve never had abuse,” she said. “Abuse could happen tomorrow.” 

Before commissioners voted, community members weighed in on the proposed contract. 

“We don’t want license plate readers,” said Kootenai County resident Don Cameron. “I didn’t come to North Idaho for that. If you’ve got probable cause, pull me over, but we don’t need warrantless surveillance in this town more than we already have.” 

Several retired police officers spoke in favor of license plate reader technology, including Dennis Dodd, who said he worked on the Arizona Child Abduction Response team. 

“My squad responded anywhere in the state of Arizona where a child was abducted,” he said. “As I was either flying or driving to those locations, I was saying a secret prayer that that agency would have license plate readers. It’s such a godsend to law enforcement.” 

Arek Brock, a detective with the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office, said license plate readers help police investigate crime. While investigating the death of a local woman who overdosed on fentanyl, for example, Brock said he used license plate data to track the drugs back to the dealer. 

“We use this in our community to hold criminals accountable,” he said. 

Brock said Kootenai County residents are recorded and scrutinized more intensely by cameras in businesses or doors facing public streets. 

“This is not a battle to be fighting,” he said. “This is ridiculous. This doesn’t infringe on your rights. If you think this infringes your rights, don’t go to the casino. Don’t come out of your house. Wear a freaking mask. Don’t travel.” 

Norris said his office has adopted a “robust” policy outlining the collection, access, use, dissemination, retention and purging of data collected by license plate readers. 

Under the policy, the sheriff’s office will store license plate reader data for one year, at which point the information will be “permanently removed from the system.” Administrators will conduct random audits to make sure the data is being accessed, used and purged in accordance with policy. 

License plate data won’t be “sold, published, exchanged or disclosed to commercial or private entities,” according to the policy. 

The complete use and retention policy manual is published on the sheriff’s office website, under the jail bureau tab. 

    Sheriff Robert "Bob" Norris