1. United States
2. N.C.
3. Letter

As a voter in your district, I am writing to urge you, in your role on the Senate Rules and Operations Committee, to remove Section 6 from H206 before allowing the bill to advance out of committee. Section 6 would permit the deployment of automated license plate readers (ALPR) on state rights-of-way without establishing adequate safeguards. This is a powerful surveillance capability that, if left unchecked, risks violating fundamental American privacy rights. Notably, the bill imposes no meaningful limits on how long collected data may be retained, provides no clear penalties for misuse by law enforcement or contractors, and offers no mechanism for citizens to seek redress, request deletion of their data, or opt out of tracking through a do-not-track list. These omissions are not theoretical concerns. ALPR systems have been misused by law enforcement in multiple jurisdictions, including targeted surveillance of religious communities and disproportionate deployment in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color. Individual abuses are also well documented, including cases of officers using license plate databases for stalking and extortion. Additionally, system errors have led to dangerous wrongful stops, putting innocent people at risk. The risks are compounded by data security concerns. Large-scale ALPR databases are attractive targets for cyberattacks, as demonstrated by breaches involving federal contractors. Without strict retention limits and access controls, the potential for harm increases significantly. A reasonable baseline safeguard would be to prohibit retention of data for vehicles that do not match a legitimate hot list. Section 6 fails to include even this basic protection. Furthermore, the Perry-Garcia amendment to the national highway funding bill may render the proposed deployment by the SBI legally questionable, adding further uncertainty to this provision. I respectfully ask that you act to remove Section 6 from H206 or ensure it is substantially revised to include meaningful privacy protections before it proceeds. Thank you for your consideration.