Meeting Date: 10/ 6/2026
Presentation by the BBPD on the City's use of Flock ALPR, Department Policy Updates, and Transparency Measures.
Requested Action:
Requested by City Commission Consensus.
Explanation of Request:
The Boynton Beach Police Department's use of Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR) technology has produced significant, documented public safety outcomes across violent crime, property crime, stolen vehicle recovery, suspect identification, and protection of vulnerable residents.
ALPR remains an effective lead generation tool when governed by documented lawful purpose, strict role based access, short/justified retention, verified alerts, and auditable sharing. We have already reduced footprint and tightened policy. The vendor market offers options with different integration/privacy strengths. Staff seeks direction today on guardrails and procurement path.
ALPR is a critical public safety tool that substantially enhances investigative efficiency, accelerates suspect identification, protects vulnerable residents, and improves officer and community safety. Its value is demonstrated daily across patrol, investigations, RTCC operations, and multi jurisdictional coordination. The Department remains committed to transparent, accountable, and policy driven use of ALPR while ensuring ongoing evaluation and responsiveness to community concerns.
Staff is requesting the following recommended action(s):
- Endorse the updated ALPR policy guardrails and role based access plan.
- Confirm the data sharing posture and retention parameters to align with community expectations and legal guidance.
- Direct staff on procurement path: tighten Flock configuration, partial suspension, or competitive evaluation/RFP toward an alternative vendor.
How will this affect city programs or services?
The updated ALPR directive including mandatory case numbers, offense type selection, reduced user access, tightened search rules, and a 7 day retention limit will directly change how sworn staff and RTCC personnel conduct investigative searches. This increases audit accountability and requires more disciplined workflows for patrol, RTCC analysts, and dispatch supervisors.
Tighter ALPR controls especially reduced retention and strict search documentation address transparency issues that were raised. This may improve public confidence in BBPDs technology governance, positively affecting citizen perception.
Removing ALPR would significantly slow investigations, reduce real time intelligence, weaken regional coordination, remove a major data tool for the RTCC, and diminish officer situational awareness.
The technology has consistently:
- Enhanced officer safety by providing direction of travel intelligence and real time hotlist alerts.
- Accelerated investigative timelines, increasing clearance rates across multiple crime categories.
- Strengthened multi agency coordination by enabling regional intelligence sharing.
Budgeted Item: Yes
Account Line Item and Description:
103-2110-521-46-91
Fiscal Impact:
None, the item is already budgeted for fiscal year.
Attachments: