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Lewiston Police | Lewiston's plate readers

The city bought its first plate reader license for $13,000 and a camera software subscription for $22,050. Both arrived as lines in a check register, approved on the consent agenda in one motion with the rest of the city's bills.

At a glance

Who operates it
Lewiston Police Department [1] [4]
What was bought
An Axon Fleet 3 plate reader license and a Flock camera software subscription [1] [4]
What it cost
$13,000, then $3,000, then $22,050 [1] [3] [4]
Who approved it
The City Council, on the consent agenda [2] [5]
How many cameras
No document we read states a count. Volunteers have mapped six fixed plate readers in Lewiston, and none of the six records an operator [1]
A written policy
None appears in the city record we read [3]
How long reads are kept
No retention period appears in the city record we read [3]
Who else can search the data
No sharing agreement or partner agency appears in the city record we read [3]

How it happened

  1. Decision

    The first license is paid for

    Check 117819 pays Axon Enterprise $13,000.00. The register describes it as an Axon Fleet 3 ALPR license with one camera, charged to the police department. [1]

  2. Decision

    The Council approves the register

    The payment reaches the Council as consent agenda item C, "Considering approval of the Voucher's Payable dated 12/28/2024 - 1/09/2025 in the amount of $1,992,311.39". The consent agenda is enacted by one motion. Six councilors vote aye and none against. [2]

  3. Debate

    The department tells the Council the project is still in the works

    The Lewiston Police Department's 2024 annual report, presented at a Council work session, carries a section headed Looking Ahead. It says the department is working on an initiative to implement license plate readers in the city, lists what they can do, and ends by saying the project is still in the works with more updates to come. The first license had been paid for ten weeks earlier. [3]

  4. Deployment

    The integration

    Axon is paid $3,000.00 for an Axon Fleet 3 ALPR API integration. The Council approves the register on 28 April 2025. [3]

  5. Deployment

    A second vendor

    Flock Group Inc is paid $22,050.00 for a police camera software subscription. It is the only time the word Flock appears in the city record we read. [4]

  6. Debate

    The one question asked about the bills

    A councilor asks for the Voucher's Payable to be moved off the consent agenda and taken up on the active agenda. The question then asked is about duplicate amounts listed under travel and training, and staff explain that those entries reflect costs for multiple attendees or webinar registrations. The two registers, $4,195,632.81 and $2,330,230.46, are approved five aye and none against. The Flock subscription is in the second of them. [5]

Lewiston’s plate reader program has no founding document. There is no contract in the Council’s record, no resolution, no staff report and no debate. What there is, is a row in a list of bills.

On 9 January 2025 the city paid Axon Enterprise $13,000.00. The check register describes the purchase as an Axon Fleet 3 ALPR license with one camera, charged to the police department.[1] Axon Fleet 3 is a camera system that mounts in a patrol car, and an ALPR license is what turns it into a plate reader.

How the Council saw it

The payment reached the Council eighteen days later, inside item C of the consent agenda: “Considering approval of the Voucher’s Payable dated 12/28/2024 - 1/09/2025 in the amount of $1,992,311.39”.[2] The consent agenda is the part of the meeting the Council enacts by one motion, without separate discussion, unless a councilor asks for an item to be pulled. Nobody did. Six councilors voted aye and none against.

That is the whole public proceeding. The same pattern repeated twice more. On 20 March 2025 Axon was paid $1,971.80 for a Fleet 3 true up bundle annual renewal. On 17 April 2025 it was paid $3,000.00 for an Axon Fleet 3 ALPR API integration.[3]

The report that said the project had not started

On 7 April 2025 the police department presented its 2024 annual report to the Council at a work session. Near the back, under a heading called Looking Ahead, the report says the department is working on an initiative to implement license plate readers in the city. It explains what the cameras do, and it closes by saying that the project is still in the works, with more updates to come.[3]

By that date the Council had already approved the payment for the first license, ten weeks earlier, and it approved the payment for the integration ten days later. Both were in registers the Council itself voted on.

The second vendor

On 10 July 2025 the city paid Flock Group Inc $22,050.00. The register describes it as a police camera software subscription.[4] It is the only time the word Flock appears in any City of Lewiston document we read.

At the meeting that approved that register, on 28 July 2025, a councilor did what nobody had done before in this record, and asked for the Voucher’s Payable to be moved off the consent agenda and considered on the active agenda. The question that followed was about duplicate amounts listed under travel and training. Staff explained that the entries reflect costs for multiple attendees or webinar registrations. The registers were then approved, five aye and none against.[5]

What is not on the record

A resident of Lewiston who reads everything the city has published about this program learns three prices and two vendor names. They do not learn how many cameras there are, where they stand, how long a record of their car passing a given corner is kept, who can search it, or whether any written rule governs the answer. Volunteers have mapped six fixed plate readers in the city, and not one of the six records who operates it.

A camera software subscription is not a camera count, and a license is not a policy.

What we do not know

What you can do

Show up

Systems like this one are approved by boards, councils and committees that meet in public. We have confirmed where each of them meets in Nez Perce County and how public comment works there.

How to show up in Nez Perce County →

Protect yourself

Practical steps to shrink your personal data trail. Our guides publish at launch; until then, EFF's Surveillance Self-Defense is the best starting point.

Surveillance Self-Defense →

Sources

  1. 1.
    Lewiston City Council packet, 27 January 2025, check register for 28 December 2024 to 9 January 2025 · Meeting record · · accessed
  2. 2.
    Lewiston City Council regular meeting minutes, 27 January 2025, printed in the packet for 10 February 2025 · Meeting record · · accessed
  3. 3.
    Lewiston City Council work session packet, 7 April 2025, Lewiston Police Department 2024 Annual Report · Meeting record · · accessed
  4. 4.
    Lewiston City Council packet, 28 July 2025, check register for 27 June to 10 July 2025 · Meeting record · · accessed
  5. 5.
    Lewiston City Council regular meeting minutes, 28 July 2025 · Meeting record · · accessed

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