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• In addition to capturing images of passing vehicles, mobile ALPR cameras are effective at capturing license plates of parked cars. For example, a patrol car may drive around a public parking lot capturing hundreds of vehicles’ plates in minutes. Most of this ALPR data is stored in databases for extended periods of time—often as much as five years.

• However, police have also used ALPR data for mass enforcement of less serious offenses, such as searching for uninsured drivers or tracking down individuals with overdue court fees. The ACLU estimates that less than 0.2 percent of plate scans are linked to criminal activity or vehicle registration issues.

• If the ALPR camera scans a plate on the list, the system sends an alert to the officer in the squad car (if it's a mobile reader) or the agency (if it's a fixed reader). Some hotlists include low-level misdemeanors and traffic offenses. Some agencies use these hotlists to generate revenue by stopping citation scofflaws.

Traditional ALPRs can range anywhere from $10,000 – $30,000 upfront, which doesn’t include ongoing maintenance and software subscriptions. Furthermore, most traditional systems have add-on costs for providing the camera with power and internet, that is required for the system to work successfully.

ALPR is a powerful surveillance technology that can be used to invade the privacy of individuals as well as to violate the rights of entire communities. Law enforcement agencies have abused this technology. Police officers in New York drove down a street and electronically recorded the license plate numbers of everyone parked near a mosque.

Automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) is becoming an increasingly practical security solution for Cities, Hospitals, Private Businesses (campuses), and Colleges As a result, one of the main ALPR trends is the migration from primarily mobile to predominantly fixed-location systems.

Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPR) have been instrumental in helping law enforcement solve and prevent crime for decades. Today, there are several options on the market to read license plates. What was traditionally available only to police departments are now becoming available to businesses and neighborhoods as well.