NEW HAVEN, CT — New Haven is on pace for its fewest violent-crime incidents in 15 years, and Police Chief David Zannelli counts the city's automated license-plate readers among the reasons, he told NBC Connecticut in a report published Monday, Oct. 5. The department's figures count homicides, nonfatal shootings and confirmed gunfire as violent crime.
"We're not celebrating," Zannelli told the station, "but the technology incorporated with increased cooperation from our community and hard work of detectives and officers has been a big trio in helping us reduce violent crime."
More than 300 readers, kept 21 days
The city's readers come from the vendor Rekor, and there are more than 300 of them around New Haven, NBC Connecticut reported. Like other plate readers, they photograph license plates; the images are kept for 21 days, Zannelli said. Officers and detectives look at them in a center inside police headquarters on Union Avenue.
Only the police department can see the photos, the chief said; it may pass them to other departments that ask, at its own discretion. "Nobody can come in and take our information; we're in control completely," Zannelli told NBC Connecticut.
Rekor did not comment to NBC Connecticut. The company has put out a plan answering the recent backlash against Flock, another plate-reader company, saying its system is not "a broad, indefinite location database of ordinary drivers."