Holly Springs, NC, July 26, 2026 — Automated license plate readers have become a routine investigative tool for Holly Springs police, but last Tuesday’s town council discussion revealed the town doesn’t control every camera operating within its borders.
During a presentation requested by Town Manager Randy Harrington, Police Chief Paul Liquorie explained how the department uses automated license plate readers, commonly known as ALPRs, the safeguards that govern access to the data, and where the town’s authority over the technology ends. The council took no action other than receiving the briefing.
Liquorie described ALPRs as high-speed cameras that use optical character recognition to capture license plate numbers, along with the time and location where a vehicle was observed. That information is stored in a searchable database. He also distinguished the technology from Flock Safety, whose name has become closely associated with license plate readers nationwide. Holly Springs instead contracts with Vigilant Solutions, a Motorola subsidiary, a decision Liquorie said the department made deliberately…