UPDATE: In an Aug. 10 letter to Ypsilanti Township Supervisor Brenda Stumbo, Washtenaw County Sheriff Jerry Clayton said his office would use license plate reader technology if the township purchased it.
YPSILANTI, MI - If a proposal to blanket Ypsilanti Township with automated license plate readers for use by police moves forward, the city of Ypsilanti would be surrounded by the devices capturing information from passing vehicles.
City leaders want the township to know they’re opposed to the plan, unanimously passing a resolution on Tuesday, Aug. 9, calling their use “an invasion of privacy,” while also gearing up to consider a total ban on the technology within city limits.
The license plate reader proposal, under consideration by Ypsilanti Township officials while the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office seeks feedback from residents to decide if it wants to use the technology, will affect city residents too, Ypsilanti City Council Member Brian Jones-Chance said.
“We are neighbors, and I think it’s important for them to know how we feel,” he said on Tuesday.
The Ypsilanti resolution states the City Council is opposed to the cameras in Ypsilanti “and all neighboring municipalities” and requests a “careful review of studies and literature before any action.” The question of using the technology should be put to a vote of the people, it adds.
The township has not taken any public action to approve a contract to install the cameras, but in a June update township officials said their proposal is to put them at entrances and exits to township roadways, for a total of 65 to 70 cameras including most ways in and out of the city of Ypsilanti.
Read more: 60+ license plate readers could blanket Ypsilanti area under township plan
Washtenaw County Sheriff Jerry Clayton, who heads the policing agency for the township, has also not publicly issued a determination on whether his office would adopt the technology. In an April community education session, he said they could be useful in law enforcement investigations but only if proper safeguards are put in place.
The cameras do no capture live video, only recording a single photo of the back of a vehicle as it passes, police officials have said. The information would be cross-checked with a “hot list” of vehicles involved in criminal activity.
A “hit” on the list would not constitute reasonable suspicion or probable cause to conduct a traffic stop or take enforcement actions on its own, according to a draft policy for the cameras and a question and answer document from the Sheriff’s Office.
Township officials have said they would not be used to enforce speeding laws or issue traffic tickets but rather in investigating serious crimes.
Though some language in Ypsilanti city meeting documents referred to “red-light license plate readers,” the kind that automatically issue traffic citations, the Ypsilanti resolution was intended to oppose the automated readers the township is pursuing, used for different purposes, Ypsilanti Council Member Annie Somerville said during Tuesday’s meeting.
Somerville and Council Member Nicole Brown joined Jones-Chance in sponsoring the resolution, which passed unanimously with Council Member Jennifer Symanns absent.
Concrete steps could follow the symbolic action from city leaders.
On Aug. 23, the City Council is slated to take up an ordinance prohibiting the installation or use of electronic license plate scanning devices within the city and will have a public hearing on the measure during its regular meeting at 7 p.m., according to a city notice.
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