Nashville Repo Crews Tap Opry Mills Plate Readers, Mall Says

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Shoppers who return to an empty parking space at Opry Mills in Nashville are usually not victims of car theft, the mall’s security chief says. More often, a repossession company found them through the mall’s own license plate cameras.

Richard Siegelman, who runs security at Opry Mills, laid out the arrangement this week in public remarks at a meeting of the Metro Transportation Licensing Commission. He had come to talk about unlicensed taxis working the property, but he also told members that the plate reader data from the private lot is passed along to repo companies.

According to Siegelman, about three or four people a week come to mall security believing their car was stolen, only to learn after some questions that they were behind on loan payments and the vehicle had been repossessed. He said there has not been an actual stolen car on the property in roughly two years, and that on weekends tow trucks from outside firms show up in large numbers alongside the mall’s own towing company.

Simon Property Group owns the mall. It has not said publicly whether the plate information is sold or simply shared, and Metro Nashville police have not said whether officers can see the mall’s data. Figures on auto thefts at the mall were not immediately available from the department.

The taxi issue that brought Siegelman to the commission is a separate headache for the Opry complex. Its security leaders told the panel that unlicensed cab drivers have been operating on the private property and causing problems for visitors.

The cameras, a fixture on American roads and lots since the late 1990s, are what let outside companies see which vehicles pull into the mall, Siegelman told the commission. An owner who has fallen behind on payments can walk back out to find the car gone.

Tennessee law limits how long government agencies may keep plate reader records, generally no more than 90 days unless the data is tied to an open investigation. Those limits do not cover private operators like a shopping mall.

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