ALPR Usage (Myrtle Beach PD)

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

All documents relating to usage of Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR) technology by the Myrtle Beach Police Department, including but not limited to documents indicating:

-scope of ALPR deployment;
-purposes for which ALPR technology is employed;
-means of handling and storing ALPR data;
-extent and timeline for ALPR data storage; and
-protocols and extent of ALPR data sharing between MBPD and other government agencies.

Please include any relevant documents, including but not limited to memos, reports, emails, meeting minutes and contracts.

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as I believe this request is in the public interest. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.

In the event that fees cannot be waived, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 15 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Chris Meller

Thanks, Mark. I would not be able to review them in Myrtle Beach, so please also include time required to scan and email or mail a CD of the records in your estimate.

Thank you,

Chris

Thanks, Mark. That exceeds my budget for these requests, so I'd like to see if I could reduce its scope. Could you give me an idea of the types of records you have located, particularly those that are most time consuming to retrieve and review?

To help target the search, I've found through identical requests to other agencies that most of the information I'm looking for can be found in two sources that should be easy to retrieve: a vendor contract (scope, purpose, means, extent) and the police department's policy manual or general orders (protocols and sharing).

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Thanks,

Chris