Smile! Places Your License Plate’s Pic Is Taken in Fort Collins

A thread in the Fort Collins community on Reddit a few days ago, started by u/breadplz, documented how somebody received a ticket from a Fort Collins red light camera in the mail, except they claim it wasn't their car and that you couldn't clearly see the license plate in the picture.

Several other users came to their aid with information on how to get the ticket dismissed, but it got me thinking. We know about the red light cams at Drake and College or Harmony and Timberline, for example. And we know they added red light cams a couple years ago at Mulberry and Shields and just down the road at Prospect and Shields.

What about those license plate surveillance cams that we're probably not aware of?

Fort Collins has quite a few. You know, the ones that simply record and document the license plates of all the cars that pass. You might have seen some on top of poles or around traffic lights at an intersection and wondered what these cameras do. How many of these are there, and where are they?

A little internet sleuthing revealed there's far, far more places around Fort Collins looking at and recording your license plate than you likely are aware of.

According to PhotoEnforced.com, in fact, there are eighteen such cameras around the city, in addition to the four red light cams we all know about and are used to, with the sole purpose of recording license plate numbers of cars that pass.

For their part, law enforcement endorses the use of these cameras pretty openly. They argue a license plate reader can capture a vehicles license plate number, but also the date, time and location it passed by. This is in addition to all sorts of other information that can be used to help locate stolen property or solve crimes, like who the car is registered to, if it's been reported stolen or if the owner is, for example, wanted for a crime.

Whether you agree with their usage or not, here's where they're all located.