Lexington doesn’t need license plate readers. We need more investment instead.

When Mayor Gorton and LPD Police Chief Weathers first introduced the “free” pilot program of 25 automatic license plate readers from an out-of-state venture capital-funded startup with no consistent data to back up its claims that their readers prevent crime this past March, councilmembers and the public were skeptical. Could increasing unwarranted police surveillance through a program with no civilian oversight really help with issues Lexingtonians were concerned about, like gun violence and housing? Eager to appear “public safety” focused in an election year, council approved the year-long pilot program, ostensibly to gather enough data to properly assess the program’s effectiveness in preventing crime and the public’s experience of increased police surveillance. Designed to provide us and our elected officials adequate time and data to assess its usefulness and potential harms, the program was slated to last through August, 2023.

Then the election happened, and the makeup of our city council shifted. Less than one month after we voted in the most diverse council in Lexington history, our mayor and police chief brought the license plate reader program back before council to end the pilot program nine months early, so it could be expanded from 25 cameras to 100, all interest in gathering data and gauging public sentiment across a year forgotten. Have the readers improved crime clearance rates? Prevented crime? Has anyone been harmed or put in danger by increased, warrantless policing? We have no idea, but on Tuesday, Dec. 6, our lame duck city council voted overwhelmingly in favor of expansion.

Let us set aside for a moment the fact that these readers relay inaccurate license plate information as much as 7% of the time, putting innocent people in danger. Let us set aside for a moment the vast amount of data that shows police officers routinely abuse surveillance tools. Let us set aside the cost, which is nearly enough to fund a proven anti-gun violence intervention and prevention program that local, grassroots organization, BUILD, has been asking for since 2014. Let us set aside the fact that we have no good data on the good or harm the readers do here in Lexington. Let us set aside our memory of 2020’s massive demonstrations that signified both rage at the police murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and Lexingtonians’ demands for accountability, oversight, and transparency in regards to our police department. Let us even set aside the recommendations from the Mayor’s Commission on Racial Justice and Equality to increase civilian oversight of LPD and the fact that we, the public, will never know whether or not LPD actually follows their own policies regarding the use of the readers, because there is no oversight outside of the police department itself. Let us finally set aside the crush of bad laws currently being passed by regressive, anti-LGBTQ+, and anti-reproductive rights legislatures around the country and here in Kentucky, and the reality that being on the wrong side of these bad laws coupled with increased police surveillance means less safety and increased carcerality for millions of Americans, including quite a few of us here in Lexington.

Instead, let us center the fact that spending a quarter-million-dollars annually to read license plates is little more than a dog and pony show designed to distract us from the fact that the harm and crime in our city is the result of decades of disinvestment in things like affordable housing, adequate domestic violence services and prevention, anti-poverty measures, substance abuse treatment, and anti-gun-violence programs. What is needed to reduce the harm and crime besieging our city is real investment to counter the conditions out of which crime and harm spring. License plate readers can’t do that, but funding programs and services that meet more of our collective and individual needs can.

Don’t fall for the dog and pony show. We don’t need surveillance; we need investment. Let’s hope our new city council agrees.

Reva Russell English is an organizer, farmer and artist in Lexington.

This story was originally published December 6, 2022 at 9:37 AM.