Protect Americans From AI-Enhanced Mass Surveillance

I urge Congress to establish strict national safeguards governing automated license plate readers (ALPRs), artificial intelligence, facial recognition, and interconnected government surveillance databases. ALPR technology has expanded far beyond simply reading a license plate and checking it against stolen vehicles, wanted persons, or other legitimate law-enforcement alerts. Networks can now collect searchable records of where vehicles have been observed, potentially allowing government agencies to reconstruct the movements of Americans who are suspected of no crime. The danger becomes greater when these enormous databases can be combined with AI, facial recognition, video surveillance, or other government and private databases. Congress should act before technology overtakes our constitutional protections. I urge Congress to: 1. Require a warrant based on probable cause before law enforcement can use historical ALPR data to reconstruct an individual’s movements, except for narrowly defined emergencies. 2. Prohibit mass searches unrelated to a specific criminal investigation. 3. Prohibit combining ALPR data with facial recognition, biometric databases, or other surveillance systems without judicial authorization. 4. Prohibit government use of generative AI to fabricate or materially alter photographs, video, audio, people, vehicles, voices, or events presented as authentic evidence. 5. Require preservation of original digital evidence and a verifiable chain of custody identifying every AI enhancement or alteration. 6. Require every ALPR database search to record the officer, agency, case number, legal justification, databases searched, and information shared. 7. Establish meaningful criminal and civil penalties for knowingly fabricating digital evidence or conducting unauthorized surveillance. Technology should help police investigate crimes—not create a permanent surveillance system monitoring innocent Americans. Please establish national protections now, including conditions on federal law-enforcement grants to state and local agencies using these technologies.