Nine high school parking lots in Aurora have carried license plate cameras since last year, district and police officials confirmed this week, an arrangement that stayed out of public view until now.
The devices went in under agreements with Aurora Public Schools and Cherry Creek Schools. Cherry Creek pulled them from its campuses earlier this year. Police credit the technology with investigative wins, including help naming a 14-year-old suspect in a shooting at Sand Creek Park last month.
Student advocates and civil rights attorneys say minors change the calculus. Most high schoolers cannot consent to being tracked and parents were never asked. “What are children doing that you need to monitor them?” said JoJo Padilla, executive director of the Denver Healing Generations Network.
Department guidelines permit lookups for criminal investigations, stolen vehicles, wanted drivers and missing or endangered people. The cameras read plates and match them against hot lists, and critics argue their spread builds a searchable record of movement that can be misused.
The placement follows months of retreat elsewhere. Agencies have ended contracts after audits showed searches run without case numbers and data shared more widely than promised, and Boston became the latest city to walk away this month when it let its Flock deal lapse.
