There's been a lot of information swirling about license plate readers the last few weeks. Almost two weeks since Metro Council voted to approve license plate readers on third reading, there's some poetic justice found in the revelation that the new Tennessee license plates are invisible to LPRs at night.
But whether they work or not, legislation was passed allowing them to be installed in public right-of-ways throughout Nashville. It was not surprising to see how the vote went but certainly disappointing.
In a last minute campaign over the weekend proceeding the vote, Mayor John Cooper's administration was reportedly working the phones calling council members and whipping their support. Metro police chief John Drake and strangely the brand new NDOT director Diana Alarcon also threw their hats into the ring, releasing a statement urging council members to vote for LPRs. In that letter, Chief Drake made a claim that was pretty clearly false. Regardless of Chief Drake's opinion or whether or not we should share LPR data with ICE, there's no dispute that ICE has the authority to subpoena the data, and there's really nothing the city or police department can do to block that.
My own council member Joy Styles was a big proponent of this legislation and has been pushing it for over a year. She claims to have not received my emails that I sent about the issue prior to the vote, but I'm certain she wouldn't have changed her view either way. At first, I thought that can't possibly be true, but taking into account my experience with how well Metro-provided services work in my public school, perhaps she really didn't get the emails.
Prior to the bill's second reading, which is the final opportunity to amend a bill, the council held a last-minute sub committee meeting between LPR proponents and LPR opponents. There were many parts of this meeting that made me laugh, including the majority of council member Courtney Johnston's comments but one in particular came from council member Jennifer Gamble. At one point during the meeting, Gamble claimed that license plate readers can't possibly be biased because technology can't see color. It can't see race; all it sees is a license plate number. When I google "can technology see race", the first response I get is titled Of course technology perpetuates racism. It was designed that way. It's actually a really good read. But OK, council member Gamble.
Here's the full meeting if you want to enjoy it for yourself:
The real hero in all of this are two of my favorite council members Bob Mendes. As a lawyer, Mendes applied his critical lens and expertise to point out some major flaws in the legislation prior to its passage. And since then, he's continued to hold the administration accountable by (gasp) requesting that they follow the law and most recently sponsoring three pieces of legislation to limit what LPRs can and cannot do. I can relate to this because the most controversial emails I send tend to be the ones where I ask my own school and district administration to abide by their own rules and policies. I'm not sure why it's such a hard thing to do.
I also want to shout out two of my favorite council members Sandra Sepulveda and Zulfat Suara who made some excellent speeches opposing the surveillance technology during the Feb. 1 council meeting.
It will certainly be interesting to see how Mendes' three bills restricting LPR usage will fare as they progress through three readings. First reading for all three is currently scheduled for tomorrow night, Feb. 15, unless they are deferred.
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Disclaimer: While I am an employee of MNPS, the views expressed on this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of MNPS.
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