Predicting Public Support for the Use of License Plate Recognition Technology by Police

• NCJ Number: 252000
• Journal: Police Practice and Research Volume: 15 Issue: 5 Dated: 2014 Pages: 373-388
• Author(s): Linda M. Merola; Cynthia Lum
• Date Published: 2014
• Length: 16 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2013-IJ-CX-0017
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Award: Evaluating the Crime Control and Cost-Benefit Effectiveness of License Plate Recognition (LPR) Technology in Patrol and Investigations

Annotation

This article presents results from the first community opinion survey on police use of license plate recognition (LPR) technology, and multinomial logistic regression models of citizen support for the technology were developed.

Abstract

The use of LPR technology by police is becoming increasingly common. LPR may be used by police for many purposes, ranging from stolen vehicle location to more complex surveillance and predictive functions. Existing research has not examined community support for this technology, even though it has potential to impact police legitimacy with a community. Regression results from the community opinion survey on LPR technology used by police indicates that a number of factors significantly predict citizen support for police use of LPR, including increased trust in police and the belief that LPR information is public information. (Publisher abstract modified)