ASHEVILLE, N.C. — The Asheville Police Department is defending a one-page public audit of its license plate reader cameras, saying the full version holds more detail on officer searches but cannot be released because state law keeps captured plate data confidential.
The audit, released Aug. 6, covered April through June. It found that outside agencies, in numbers it did not specify, searched the Asheville system more than 2.75 million times in those three months. Department spokesperson Rick Rice said the audit team checked the reason each outside agency logged and found every search listed a case number or other allowable reason under policy. Rice put the department own searches over the same stretch at 3,857.
The earlier audit for January through March was far more detailed. It named the 10 agencies that searched Asheville cameras most often and counted 673 searches by city officers across three camera systems.
The city has since cut ties with Flock Safety. City Council voted Aug. 25 to end the contract, and the city sent its termination notice the next day. Flock set Oct. 12 as the date for removing its products, with crews expected to haul away the equipment within 60 days after that because of a technician backlog.
Officers still use Axon readers mounted in patrol cars. Under the city rules, unmatched plate data is deleted after 30 days, every search needs a case or incident number, and the city says none of it goes to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Rice said the department has also narrowed searches to states bordering North Carolina and cut the number of authorized users. The audits are done every quarter under Policy 505, which was updated Oct. 1, and they are posted on the city police transparency page.
Section: More Asheville NC crime news
Filed under: Asheville NC Public Safety News
