Las Vegas Installs License Plate-Reading Cameras

Ahead of Tuesday night’s New Year’s Eve celebration, the city of Las Vegas activated 22 new surveillance cameras along streets intersecting the Fremont Street Experience (FSE). These cameras actively scan for the license plates of stolen or wanted vehicles, notifying law enforcement when any matches are obtained.

“The cameras will improve public safety during New Year’s Eve festivities and beyond,” according to a city press release.

The cameras cannot be used by police to monitor or punish traffic infractions, such as speeding or running red lights, the city claims.

Here’s Looking at You

More than 300 video cameras already monitor the crowd underneath the FSE’s giant LED canopy, which is believed to draw millions of people annually.

In 2020, the FSE reportedly installed a multimillion-dollar gunshot detection system called ShotPoint. Developed by New Mexico tech company Databuoy, it integrated with the cameras already in place to provide law enforcement with real-time gunshot alerts.

Two years later, following two incidents of gun violence, FSE also installed an AI-powered “smart safety platform.” Manufactured by a Vegas tech company called Remark Holdings, this automatically also uses the FSE’s cameras to scan crowds for signs of fire, intrusions, unattended bags, vandalism, graffiti, fights and loitering.

It is also used for crowd-counting and to analyze pedestrian traffic patterns.

According to the FSE, neither of these systems employs facial recognition software.