Ban Automated License Plate Reader Mass Surveillance

Ban automated license plate reader surveillance. ALPRs don't just catch stolen cars — they build a searchable record of everywhere every driver goes, fed into databases that police, ICE, and private vendors can query at will. That indiscriminate, suspicionless tracking is the product working as designed. There is no policy fix or feature update that makes mass surveillance acceptable. The harms are concrete and well-documented. Innocent people have been arrested due to ALPR errors. Officers have used these systems to stalk people. The databases are vulnerable to theft. And law enforcement has used ALPR networks to monitor protesters and activists, chilling First Amendment-protected activity. These aren't edge cases — they're predictable consequences of building mass surveillance infrastructure in the first place. Legislation should prohibit the indiscriminate collection and retention of location data on drivers who are not under active investigation. At minimum, any existing systems must face strict warrant requirements before data can be queried and mandatory deletion deadlines. Cities have already proven this is possible by refusing ALPR contracts outright. The legislature should make that the floor, not the exception.