NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — Two cities around Nashville say license plate readers are an important crime-fighting tool, but Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell is still waiting to fully roll them out.

Metro Police Chief John Drake said LPRs make us safer and he looks forward to the mayor implementing this important tool.

LPRs for the Metro Police Department were approved by the Metro Council last year. The city has since discontinued a full release.

Nearby, the Hendersonville Police Department has had LPRs for several years placed throughout the city.

“We’ve seen tremendous success with it,” Lt. Gagnon said.

He said that after a successful pilot program, the city moved forward quickly.

“We got almost immediate support from our local government,” he said.

Metro police have seen more than 100 felony arrests with its pilot program, but Mayor O’Connell recently said the policy needs to be adjusted.

“We just received feedback from MNPD about our LPR policy and we intend to take this right before the Metro Council,” he said.

This policy also addresses privacy concerns.

Gagnon tells us how Hendersonville dealt with privacy.

“There are retention periods on the record so things aren’t kept forever, they’re just for a response at the time and a response later if we have an incident.”

he said. He said LPRs only go after criminals.

We also looked at the success of LPRS in Brentwood.

“We’ve been in the program for about 5 years and in that time we’ve solved countless crimes, from missing persons to wanted persons to stolen vehicles. We’ve assisted other agencies with some major crimes, murders, personal crimes that we might not have solved otherwise,” said Brentwood Assistant Police Chief Jim Colvin.

Colvin said they are placed in thoroughfares and parks and only keep the information stored for a short time as a way to address any privacy concerns.

“That data is only stored temporarily if it is not needed, and in 90 days it is then deleted from the system. So it usually addresses people’s concerns,” he said.

We asked the mayor for an update on where he stands in the policy process. We are waiting for answers. We will update you once we do.

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