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Pittsburgh City Council

Council approves license plate reading software as questions mount over surveillance policy and data sharing.

Written by Amy Whipple

Pittsburgh Police are keeping an eye on your car — and everyone else's.

City Council Member Deb Gross of Highland Park flagged an invoice at the March 18 committee meeting for PlateSmart license plate reading software.

The software can track individual vehicle travel history, its most common routes and travel time between cameras.

PlateSmart’s website also states that its software is helping Pittsburgh’s auto squad—a unit dedicated to finding stolen cars—investigate a multi-state credit card fraud scheme. That story has not otherwise been reported and does not say that there were any criminal charges filed.

Gross said that her staff has been tracking the use of surveillance technology with an eye on  updating city policies.

Internal policy for PlateSmart software allows the city to share data with outside agencies, “which is maybe too vague for the current situation that we’re in historically,” said Gross. She added that, according to the administration, “outside agencies” does not include the federal government.

As with the previous invoice Gross pulled for discussion, a contract for the software is not publicly available.

Council Member Anthony Coghill of Beechview cited an incident from last month where a license plate reader could have helped police find a gunman after someone fired almost 30 rounds outside of a bar on Brookline Boulevard. Security cameras only captured the make and model of the car; the shooter remains unidentified.

Council approved paying the invoice.

Connections to this story

Elected officials:
Anthony Coghill
Topics:
Public Safety & EMSGovernment & Accountability
Governments:
Pittsburgh City Council
Public meetings:
City Council · March 17, 2026

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