Plate Readers

 The Cedar Rapids Police Department is in the processes of putting up 75 new Automated License Plate Readers across the city.

The cameras read license plates of cars as they pass by, alerting police if someone they are looking for drives by. For around 10 years, the department had two of these cameras attached to patrol cars.

The i9 Investigative team learned that the city of Cedar Rapids signed a two-year contract this summer with Flock Group for nearly half a million dollars to add 75 cameras. 61 are already up in a fixed location across the city. “We have another nine that have yet to be put up,” says Cedar Rapids Police Chief David Dostal. “And then the other five are going to be pain, tilt, zoom, cameras that are going to be deployed in the downtown area to assist with any issues we have downtown.”

Chief Dostal says the cameras help officers arrest people with outstanding warrants, find stolen cars, and locate missing people. He says the new cameras have played a part in more than 30 arrests since going up in October, 2024.