Indianapolis, IN — June 22, 2026 — Eyes Off Indiana is commending the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department for the transparency it showed in announcing a new public safety camera in downtown Indianapolis, installed at the intersection of West Washington and North Illinois streets beneath the Indianapolis Artsgarden.
As reported by IndyStar, the camera does not use automatic license plate reader (ALPR) or facial recognition technology. IMPD publicly stated that footage not showing criminal activity is discarded after 30 days, that all system access is logged and subject to audit, and that recordings are accessed only when there is a legitimate public safety or investigative need.
Eyes Off Indiana focuses specifically on automatic license plate readers, so the organization approaches this camera through that lens. A single fixed public safety camera and a networked, searchable ALPR system raise different questions.
“Used properly, cameras can help departments solve crimes, recover stolen vehicles, and locate missing or endangered individuals,” said Walker Lasbury, Executive Director of Eyes Off Indiana. “But their public value is only as strong as the rules that govern their use.”
“Any camera can be misused if there's no policy governing who accesses the footage, why, and how long it's kept,” Lasbury said.
On resident concerns about a growing number of cameras, Lasbury drew a clear distinction between an individual camera and a connected surveillance system.
“A single camera on a street corner is not the concern. The concern is scale and aggregation — when cameras become a connected system that stores and links footage over time,” Lasbury said. “Facial recognition and license plate recognition are what enable tracking across places and time, turning a public safety tool into a surveillance system. The IMPD camera in question uses neither, which is exactly why it raises far fewer of those concerns.”
Lasbury emphasized that meaningful oversight begins with policy, not technology.
“Training only matters if there's a policy behind it: defined retention limits, access controls, and audit logs,” he said. “You can't train someone to follow rules that don't exist.”
Eyes Off Indiana pointed to IMPD's public communication about the camera as a model other agencies should follow.
“We applaud IMPD for publicly explaining what these cameras are, what they are not, and how they are governed, and we call on other departments across the state to do the same,” Lasbury said. “Too often, surveillance technologies are deployed first and explained later. In this case, the department was clear that these cameras do not use license plate reader or facial recognition technology, and when a resident asked how long footage is kept, IMPD answered plainly in public: 30 days. That is exactly what departments should be doing to earn trust with their communities.”
“The issue isn't whether a camera exists,” Lasbury added. “The issue is whether the public knows what it does, what it doesn't do, and what happens to the data it collects. Transparency is not a burden on law enforcement. It's how public trust is earned. Good surveillance policy doesn't begin with the camera. It begins with clear rules and honest communication.”
Read the original IndyStar report by Mia Thurow: “Heightened police surveillance comes to downtown Indy. Here's where.”
Learn more about Eyes Off Indiana's policy goals at https://eyesoffindiana.org.
About Eyes Off Indiana
Eyes Off Indiana, Inc. is a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to protecting privacy while preserving technological progress. The organization advocates for transparent, constitutional policies governing the collection, retention, and sharing of automatic license plate reader (ALPR) data across Indiana.
Media Contact
Walker Lasbury, Executive Director
walker@eyesoffindiana.org