Tired of waiting for the city, neighborhood installs license plate readers

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - Three license plate readers (LPRs) now sit at the entrances to the Harborview community, monitoring every car that passes by. It’s a project months in the making after a shooting at their community pool started the conversation.

Bart Smith is one of those behind the push to get them installed.

“They’ve only been up for two weeks now and even then, they’ve only been kind of semi-operational. We’re getting the power and the things right and they’re already helping,” Smith said.

In those 14 days, they’ve already shared video with police after a string of car break-ins.

“It’s exciting to know that maybe we’ve helped the police get that much closer to apprehending suspects,” Smith said.

WSMV talked with a lot of neighbors around here - none of them felt comfortable going on camera.

Most of them supported the LPRs but some had concerns about privacy, who has access to the data, and the way the HOA went about installing them. Smith says they held multiple meetings to get community feedback. Of those who voted more than 70% voted to install them.

As for privacy, Smith says if you live there, there is a way to opt out of the LPRs recording your car.

“You just email the HOA and say this is my license plate. Take me off the system,” Smith said.

The only group that has direct access to the data is the management company who can share it with police.

“Everybody’s interested in community safety and when you’re doing it in a sensitive way like these cameras do, then I think that it’s probably the least invasive and the most kind of beneficial way to do it,” Smith said.

Smith says he hopeful this will make the neighborhood safer and may inspire other HOAs to consider their own LPRs.

“Legally, you can have these cameras in your community. If you’re an HOA, then they’re available to you. They can be placed on private property and there’s no law against having your own camera that can monitor traffic going past you,” Smith said.