PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri held a press conference Wednesday to address growing community concerns regarding law enforcement’s use of Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR) technology.
During the briefing, Gualtieri outlined how the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office has relied on ALPR systems since 2006. According to the sheriff, deputies use plate-reader data to recover missing and endangered children, rescue victims of kidnapping and human trafficking, locate vehicles tied to violent crimes, track down fugitives, recover stolen cars, and arrest drug traffickers.
Gualtieri directly addressed the public debate, stating that while legitimate concerns exist, inaccurate claims have clouded the conversation.
“Misinformation about what ALPR is and what it does is unhelpful,” Gualtieri said. “Misinformation breeds suspicion and adds to contempt as it has here. Misinformation also leads to a deterioration of public trust that we work so hard to earn and it threatens sound public policy and leads to ineffective public safety.”
He tied the technology directly to local crime statistics, pointing out a 56% drop in vehicle thefts in the sheriff’s primary service area over the past decade, from 529 stolen cars in 2015 down to 230 in 2025.
“This reduction in crime is not by accident, it’s by design and by using technology such as ALPR,” Gualtieri said. “We live in a technological age which means we cannot fight crime in the stone age. As we cannot defund the police, we can also not de-tool the police either. Taking away the tools that lead to effective crime reduction will inherently lead to crime increasing and the only winners, if that happens, are the criminals.”
Addressing privacy questions, Gualtieri clarified how the equipment operates. He explained that cameras do not record continuous footage or track individuals, but instead capture motion-activated still photographs of license plates visible from public spaces.
“ALPR identifies vehicles, it doesn’t even confirm that a particular person was behind the wheel or in a vehicle,” Gualtieri stated. “A camera that takes still photos, which is what ALPR is, is incapable of tracking. A photograph is only taken if a vehicle passes a camera. There’s no tracking.”
Gualtieri added that plate data also prevents unnecessary police stops by narrowing searches to specific vehicle tags rather than stopping every car matching a broad description. He noted that automated hits must still be verified by officers before making a stop.
“ALPR does not establish probable cause for an arrest, prove guilt, or replace what an investigator does,” Gualtieri said. “An ALPR alert is simply an investigative tool that must be verified before any action is taken.”
When asked about cases where law enforcement personnel have misused system access for personal reasons, Gualtieri said officers who violate policies face termination and criminal prosecution, but argued that occasional bad actors should not lead to banning the technology entirely.
“When they do this stupid stuff we hold them accountable, they’re fired and when appropriate they’re criminally charged,” Gualtieri said. “Any abuse is serious, but the abuses do not abound. We don’t need to throw the baby out with the bathwater because a few people did something stupid.”
Gualtieri concluded by stating that the agency supports statewide regulatory standards, including mandatory written policies, routine audits, and explicit rules barring agencies from using ALPR systems to monitor First Amendment-protected activities.
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