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License-plate readers · Lehigh County

Lehigh County

Using license-plate readers · 1 agency documented

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Allentown Police Department

Status
Using license-plate readers
Vendors
Flock Safety
Cameras
67
67 Flock automatic license plate readers citywide, as reported by The Morning Call in 2024 and Lehigh Valley Public Media.
Contract
Flock Safety: $1,500,000 two-year contract · from 2024 · to 2026 · approved by Allentown City Council 2023 · The Morning Call reported a $1.5 million, two-year contract with Flock Safety for 67 plate readers (plus Raven gunshot detectors), paid for with a $1.5 million state-agency grant and approved unanimously by City Council in 2023. It was due for renewal in 2026. Renewal status was not found. (The Morning Call (republished by GovTech), June 24, 2024)
  1. Aug. 1, 2023 Lehigh Valley Public Media reported that Allentown police planned to buy Flock plate readers and a gunshot-detection system with Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) grant money. The department expected $1.5 million by the next year to pay for the purchase. (Lehigh Valley Public Media (LehighValleyNews.com), Aug. 1, 2023)
  2. Jan. 24, 2024 Lehigh Valley Public Media reported Allentown was deploying 67 license-plate readers and gunshot-detection devices. (Lehigh Valley Public Media (LehighValleyNews.com), Jan. 24, 2024)
  3. June 2024 The Morning Call reported the 67 Flock readers and Center City gunshot detectors were installed and activated in 2024. Police credited them in the June 1, 2024 Fountain Park homicide case; arrests followed June 5. Chief Charles Roca called the technology a "game changer." Flock said data is kept on its network for 30 days. (The Morning Call (republished by GovTech), June 24, 2024)
  4. 2026 Allentown denied the Pennsylvania Capital-Star's Right-to-Know request for Flock audit logs. It cited the law's criminal-investigation exception and the Criminal History Record Information Act. (Pennsylvania Capital-Star, Aug. 17, 2026)
  5. April 2026 Morning Call reporter Lindsay Weber filed a Right-to-Know request for aggregated data on Allentown police Flock searches, including dates and reasons. The city denied it as criminal investigative information, and the district attorney's office upheld the denial. (Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Oct. 9, 2026)
  6. July 10, 2026 Weber and The Morning Call petitioned the Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas (No. 2026-C-2695) to order release of the search data. A hearing was scheduled for Sept. 30, 2026. As of Oct. 9, 2026, no ruling had been posted. (Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Oct. 9, 2026)
  7. Sept. 16, 2026 Allentown City Council approved a $10,000 professional-services contract with IPVM, a Bethlehem-based firm, for an independent review of the city's Flock technology, recommended by Councilmember Jeremy Binder to inform a city policy. (WFMZ-TV 69 News, Sept. 16, 2026)
Conflicts and open questions
  • Council approval date in 2023 is not given in the sources; no council record was opened.
  • The Morning Call reported a $4 million PCCD award that covered the Flock devices as well as car and body cameras, vehicle upgrades and other technology; Lehigh Valley Public Media put the grants used for the 67 readers at $4.1 million. How this relates to the $1.5 million figure is unclear.
  • WFMZ said the vote was on a Wednesday; Sept. 16, 2026 (article date) was a Wednesday. The tally was not reported.

Reported by news outlets; agency records not yet obtained.

Statewide

  1. Feb. 2016 PennDOT demonstrated plate-reader equipment for legislators in Harrisburg. Secretary Leslie Richards said one patrol-car unit can check 3,100 plates a day, and PennDOT said it hoped to use savings from ending registration stickers for a grant program to help police buy readers. (CBS Philadelphia, Feb. 11, 2016)
  2. Aug. 13, 2019 State Police officials testified before the House Transportation Committee that they backed HB 317, a proposed plate-reader law, but raised concerns about funding and about local departments' existing equipment. The bill would have set data collection and retention rules, barred use for passive surveillance, kept reader data out of the Right-to-Know Law and created an equipment fund paid for by a traffic-violation surcharge. State Police called the readers a "force multiplier for law enforcement" and said existing systems were "siloed." (Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Aug. 13, 2019)
  3. Nov. 2, 2022 PennDOT issued Strike-off Letter 494-22-09: plate readers may not be attached to PennDOT structures, new structures may not be built for them, they may go on existing non-PennDOT structures with the structure owner's approval, and PennDOT will not fund them because it does not treat them as transportation infrastructure. (Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Nov. 2, 2022)
  4. Sept. 29, 2023 In Commonwealth v. Watkins, a Bucks County case, the state Superior Court held in a published opinion that police use of plate-reader data to find a vehicle on public roads was not a Fourth Amendment search, and upheld denial of suppression. One judge dissented. (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, Sept. 29, 2023)
  5. Aug. 2026 In August, several lawmakers circulated plate-reader proposals: Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Franklin) to restrict use to listed purposes such as stolen vehicles, missing persons and warrants; Sen. Lisa Boscola (D-Northampton) to penalize unauthorized personal use; Sen. Dan Laughlin (R-Erie) to bar networked systems that log every passing vehicle; and Rep. Tarik Khan (D-Philadelphia) to let people sue and let the attorney general and district attorneys bring civil actions. Rep. Nathan Davidson (D-Dauphin) had introduced a bill in 2025 to bar sharing reader data to enforce laws restricting health care such as abortion. (Pennsylvania Capital-Star, Aug. 31, 2026; Pennsylvania Capital-Star, Sept. 28, 2026; City & State Pennsylvania, July 24, 2026)
  6. Aug. 2026 At a Franklin County news conference in late August, Gov. Josh Shapiro said "Flock cameras are not a tool that I support" and that he would welcome bipartisan legislation to ban them; his office said in early September that he was open to a ban and working with lawmakers. The governor's office said the State Police and PennDOT do not own Flock cameras and will not allow them on state property. (The Philadelphia Inquirer, Sept. 2, 2026)
  7. Sept. 2026 The Department of General Services said it was removing Flock from the COSTARS cooperative purchasing program, which Flock joined in 2025, and reviewing other plate-reader products sold through it. DGS said one municipality had bought Flock through COSTARS. (Spotlight PA, Sept. 9, 2026)
  8. Sept. 2026 State Police told PhillyVoice they do not own Flock cameras or share data with the company; they did not say whether they use another plate-reader brand. (PhillyVoice, Sept. 21, 2026)
  9. Sept. 1, 2026 Sens. Nick Pisciottano (D-Allegheny) and Patty Kim (D-Dauphin) announced a planned Senate bill, a companion to Rep. Khan's House bill, requiring documented reasons for searches, audit trails and retention standards, with civil penalties and enforcement by the attorney general and district attorneys. (Pennsylvania Senate Democrats, Sept. 1, 2026)
  10. Sept. 24, 2026 Philadelphia City Council unanimously adopted a resolution introduced by Councilmember Rue Landau asking state legislators to ban plate-reader cameras such as Flock or set strong guardrails for them. (City & State Pennsylvania, Sept. 24, 2026; PhillyVoice, Sept. 24, 2026)
  11. Sept. 28, 2026 The House Transportation and Judiciary committees held a joint hearing on plate readers, with testimony from the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association (which favors regulation over a ban), Flock Safety, the ACLU of Pennsylvania, the Institute for Justice, the Women's Law Project and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. (Pennsylvania Capital-Star, Sept. 28, 2026)
  12. Sept. 28, 2026 Coverage of the House hearing noted that plate readers allowed the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission to eliminate toll booths; no details on its retention or sharing were found. (Pennsylvania Capital-Star, Sept. 28, 2026)
  13. Oct. 19, 2026 The House passed HB 2771, sponsored by Rep. Jennifer O'Mara (D-Delaware), 190-13, sending it to the Senate. It would limit plate readers to listed purposes such as felony and homicide warrants and investigations, stolen vehicles and missing persons; bar personal and political use and frontal or occupant imaging; generally require deletion within 72 hours; keep reader data out of Right-to-Know requests; bar transfer of data to a foreign adversary; let people sue and the attorney general bring court actions; require training approved by the State Police and the municipal police training commission; and let municipalities adopt stricter rules. (City & State Pennsylvania, Oct. 19, 2026; The Center Square (via Newsline Local), Oct. 19, 2026; CNHI (New Castle News), Oct. 20, 2026)