Vote No on HB206: Protect North Carolina's Privacy Against Mass Surveillance

As your constituent, I urge you to vote decisively against House Bill 206, if it makes it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, or if it gets referred to the Rules and Operations Committee, and reject the expansion of Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR) technology in North Carolina. ALPR systems represent a dangerous tool for mass surveillance that fundamentally threatens the privacy and civil liberties of everyday North Carolinians. These cameras collect and permanently store sensitive location data on millions of people—whether or not they are suspected of any wrongdoing. This indiscriminate surveillance enables the government to track individuals' movements, associations, and daily activities without warrants or meaningful oversight, creating an unprecedented infrastructure for monitoring our most intimate activities. The risks of abuse are substantial and well-documented. Data collected by ALPR systems is typically retained for extended periods and shared widely among law enforcement agencies, and sometimes made available to private entities. This creates dangerous opportunities for misuse—including the targeting of individuals based on their travel to medical facilities, religious institutions, or political events. Without robust safeguards, this technology enables the kind of government tracking that our constitutional protections were designed to prevent. What makes this issue particularly important is its bipartisan nature. Lawmakers across the political spectrum—conservative and progressive alike—recognize that reasonable limits on mass tracking technologies are essential to protecting fundamental freedoms. This is not a partisan issue; it is about preserving the basic right to privacy that all North Carolinians deserve. HB206 proposes to expand ALPR capabilities in our state at a moment when other jurisdictions are carefully restricting and regulating these systems. The Perry–García Amendment to the federal highway funding bill to prohibit the use of Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs). We can maintain public safety without surrendering our privacy rights. States across the country have demonstrated that thoughtful limits on ALPR data retention, sharing, and access protect both civil liberties and public safety. I respectfully urge you to vote no on HB206 and to support meaningful privacy protections. North Carolina can be a leader in protecting our citizens' fundamental rights while maintaining effective law enforcement. Thank you for your consideration.