Franklin 2024 LPR
Motorola

The City of Franklin unanimously approved the purchase of 34 automated license plate reader (LPR or ALPR) cameras during its April 23 Board of Mayor and Alderman meeting.

The city has entered into a license agreement with the Tennessee Department of Transportation for the 30 fixed Motorola Vigilant LF cameras, which will be installed on state Routes 96, 31, 431 and 248 as well as the intersection of Interstate 65 and Galleria Boulevard. The city will also have four mobile units.

The cameras automatically read license plates that travel in the cameras' view and can notify law enforcement if a plate number has been listed as being wanted by police. Those plate numbers are collected and stored in a database for 90 days.

According to a city spokesperson, the city previously had seven mobile units which are no longer in use.

“We've had seven of these, last year got 140 hits, and they were stolen vehicles or wanted individuals in Franklin,” Franklin Police Chief Deb Faulkner said during the April 23 BOMA work session, which took place before the voting meeting.

The cameras come with a $233,172 price tag, but are funded by a state Violent Crime Intervention Fund grant.

LPRs have become common in Middle Tennessee with Brentwood purchasing 20 cameras in 2023 through the same grant, while Nashville implemented the cameras throughout the city in 2023 after a six-month trial period.

Advocates of the technology see them as a way to deter and crack down on crime, while critics have expressed concerns over privacy.

“These cameras are used only for law enforcement purposes for finding stolen vehicles, stolen tags, those who have an outstanding warrant," Franklin city administrator Eric Stuckey said. "It is not ever used for traffic enforcement, and that has never been the case with any of the cameras we have in place throughout the city related to our traffic operations."