Anchorage police detail the limits on their Real-Time Crime Center

Anchorage police laid out how their growing surveillance network will operate, and how they intend to limit its reach, in an Aug. 21 presentation by Police Chief Sean Case on crime response and officer safety. Case said the department will hold automated license plate reader data for 14 days and limit search access to fewer than 10 employees.

Every search creates an audit trail. Any look back at stored data must tie to a criminal investigation. The department's annual ALPR audit must report the number of hits, the number of arrests, and hits used in criminal investigations. Case said the chief of police must assess ALPR operations quarterly and weigh "the potential legal liability and risks to citizen privacy." APD policy materials link that oversight to the risk such tools can track people and their movements.

The presentation also described a camera registry for private owners. Residents and businesses can register a camera so the department knows it exists, or they can integrate it into the system. "We can access your camera – You have complete control," the slide said. APD's website calls the registry a way to locate the nearest cameras during an investigation or emergency response.

Case opened with the state's privacy clause, Article I, Section 22 of the Alaska Constitution. The Alaska Supreme Court reads it more broadly than the Fourth Amendment, the presentation said. In a 1980 decision, the court found the state right "is broader than that afforded by the United States Constitution."

Plate readers collect no owner information, no video, and no photos of drivers, the presentation said, and the department's video systems are built to find and track objects, not people. The presentation cited a 2024 peer-reviewed study of 243 firearm-assault investigations in Hartford, Connecticut, which found cases were 442% more likely to be solved when video evidence was available than when it was not. The study was co-authored by the supervisor of Hartford's real-time crime center.

An earlier Alaska News article noted the Assembly was weighing additional money for APD, including a Real Time Crime Center tied to license-plate surveillance, with privacy rules still in draft form. The American Civil Liberties Union, which has campaigned against the spread of plate readers, argues the systems record the movements of every driver they capture, not only those under investigation, and that stored plate data can be assembled into a record of where people travel over time.

The presentation reflects only the department's account. APD lists annual audit reports for both the crime center and the plate reader program, covering feeds monitored, sharing with outside agencies, arrests, and First Amendment events where video was obtained.