License Plate Reader Cameras

License plate readers are cameras designed to capture vehicle and license plate information as vehicles pass a camera location. UNC Charlotte uses a system provided by Flock Safety.

Police and Public Safety uses LPR technology as a public safety and investigative tool. It can assist officers with:

• Locating stolen vehicles
• Gathering evidence for criminal investigations
• Determining whether a vehicle connected to an investigation entered or traveled through campus
• Locating cars associated with missing persons
• Verifying if a suspect in a crime has left campus and the direction of travel

LPR information may assist with investigations involving incidents both on and off campus.

No. Police and Public Safety does not use LPR cameras to randomly monitor vehicles or track specific individuals.

LPR information is accessed only when there is a legitimate law enforcement need connected to a reported crime or active criminal investigation.

UNC Charlotte currently has 17 LPR cameras managed by Police and Public Safety. Cameras are positioned to support campus public safety, including locations along the exterior areas of campus.

The Flock system captures vehicle and license plate information associated with vehicles passing an LPR camera. It also captures direction of travel, date/time and camera location. It does not capture any personal identifying information.

The technology is focused on vehicles, not on identifying drivers or passengers.

No, PATS cameras are not included in the Flock system on campus.

Access is restricted to authorized Police and Public Safety personnel. Currently, 26 employees have access to the system, with access limited to police personnel at the rank of sergeant and above and designated dispatch employees.

Four employees serve as system administrators.

Every search must be connected to an active, verifiable law enforcement need.

Before conducting a search, the employee must have a Computer-Aided Dispatch, or CAD, number or formal Incident Report number associated with the investigation. That number must be entered into the Flock system as part of the search justification.

Generic explanations such as “investigation” or “active case” are not sufficient. Users must document the facts and circumstances supporting each search.

LPR data is automatically deleted after 30 days.

Police and Public Safety accesses LPR information only when the search is directly related to a reported crime or active criminal investigation.

Flock operates as a standalone system using encrypted cellular connectivity and the vendor’s cloud-based platform. It does not connect to UNC Charlotte’s network.

According to Flock Safety, data is encrypted both while it is being transmitted and while it is stored, using AES-256 encryption in the cloud. Secure cellular connections are used to transmit information from the cameras to cloud storage.

Access to the system is limited to authorized Police and Public Safety personnel.

Yes. Police and Public Safety conducts a monthly internal audit of LPR system activity, including the number of searches conducted and whether the system was used appropriately.

Each search must include a documented law enforcement justification and associated CAD or incident report number.

Yes, other agencies can access LPR information within defined limits.

UNC Charlotte participates in Flock’s law enforcement network and shares limited search capability with participating law enforcement agencies that also share information with UNC Charlotte.

For those agencies, a search can indicate whether a particular license plate was detected by a UNC Charlotte camera. The result provides the camera location, date and time. It does not provide the name of the person associated with the vehicle or its registration.

Police and Public Safety also has memoranda of understanding with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation that provide those agencies with additional permissions when conducting authorized searches.

As of October 2026, the University shares with law enforcement agencies in contiguous states. This means that when agencies are looking for a vehicle, the inquiry will look across all cameras within the network.

No, the standard information available through UNC Charlotte’s shared Flock network does not identify the registered owner of a vehicle. A search indicating that a plate was detected by a UNC Charlotte camera only returns the location, date and time of that detection.

Use of the system is approved by the chief of police and is governed by applicable North Carolina requirements related to auditing and data retention, as well as Police and Public Safety’s internal access and auditing requirements.

The University does not disclose the exact locations of its LPR cameras because they are part of campus public safety infrastructure.

Cameras are installed at fixed locations and activate when a vehicle passes through the camera’s field of view. They primarily capture images of the rear of the vehicle, including the license plate. Authorized law enforcement users can search the system by license plate or by certain vehicle characteristics.

The cameras capture still images only.

No, the system does not use facial recognition technology. It is designed to identify vehicles and license plates, not people.

The cameras are positioned to capture vehicles and license plates. A person may appear incidentally in a still image, but the system cannot identify, search for or filter images based on a person’s individual characteristics.

Yes, in North Carolina the use of LPR readers on a university campus is governed by North Carolina General Statutes Chapter 20, Article 3D.

No, the camera system used by Police and Public Safety is an investigative and public safety tool. It is not used for routine traffic or parking enforcement.

PaTS uses a different, unrelated system for parking enforcement.

No. Each camera captures a vehicle only as it passes through its field of view.

An alert from an LPR reader is an investigative lead, not confirmation of a crime. Before taking any enforcement action, officers independently verify the information, including the plate number, state of issue and vehicle description.