BATON ROUGE - Solar-powered cameras that read license plates are showing up in more neighborhoods across Baton Rouge, and the Baton Rouge Police Department says they have become a key tool in solving crimes.

The cameras, made by a private company called Flock Safety, capture still images of vehicles on public roads, logging the plate, date, time, and location of each pass.

Baton Rouge Police Chief TJ Morse said the system does not build profiles on drivers. "It's not telling us anything about who owns that car," Morse said. "It's not telling us about if that car has insurance, registration, you know, any of those kinds of things. It's giving us a snapshot of vehicles so that we can then go back and use it as an investigative tool."

Morse credits the cameras with helping solve murder cases, recovering a stolen truck with a 1-year-old child inside, and averaging more than $2.5 million in recovered stolen property.

"We average about $2.5 million, a little over$2.5 million recovered in property, stolen vehicles, motorcycles, those kinds of things because of the license plate reviews," Morse said.

The East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office also uses the cameras and credits the system with helping arrest three teenagers after a car chase following a school bus shooting.

Not everyone is on board. The Louisiana City Advocacy Group opposes the cameras and sent a statement that read in part: "When local governments partner with private tech corporations to build a searchable network of vehicle movements, liberty is replaced by constant monitoring."

Lt. Brock Bunch of the Real Time Crime Center said officers cannot simply log in and browse. "Every time someone logs in, that is logged, and what they've searched for is also a record is kept on so that we can go back and view what their searches were for and what they searched for," Bunch said.

Bunch said every officer must complete training and earn certification before accessing the system, the same standard required to run a license plate or check for warrants through the National Crime Information Center.

Flock Safety says data is automatically deleted after 30 days by default unless a department chooses otherwise, and that more than 40 courts across the country have determined that fixed license plate readers do not violate the Fourth Amendment.