We Need to Regulate Automated License Plate Readers Now

Under Donald Trump’s control, federal agents are using a surveillance tool to learn where immigrants, trans people, and abortion seekers live, work, and go to school. They’re called automated license plate readers (ALPRs) and may be watching from a street near you.

Glaring down at us from light posts, traffic lights, and even convenience stores, is a privately-built, publicly paid-for surveillance network of these devices. Whenever a vehicle passes by, cameras not only capture and store data about our license plates but information about our vehicles, location, images of passengers, and our movements. 

Right now, your data can be freely shared between local, county, state law enforcement, unregulated third party vendors, and through public requests.

Because the technology is relatively new, there are no statewide rules on controlling how long the data is kept, where it is kept, or who it is shared with. The companies themselves, including Flock Safety and Axon, have proven to be a liability. A recent report from the University of Washington Center for Human Rights revealed that at least eight WA law enforcement agencies enabled 1:1 sharing access of their Flock data with Border Patrol. The Border Patrol had back door access to 10 agencies’ data, and a limited number of agencies conducted Flock ALPR data searches on behalf of ICE and Border Patrol.

In one case, Texas police used ALPR data to track down a woman who sought reproductive care, using a trove of information from Flock Safety that included data from King County.

The federal government is targeting our loved ones, and they’re using our state and cities’ tools to do it. What was once sold as a “tool for safety” has become a terrifying liability.

This year, lawmakers in Olympia can mitigate the danger through the Driver Privacy Act and regulate ALPRs in Washington state. We testified in Olympia on its behalf last week.

SB 6002 takes a few important steps. In its current form, the bill would cap data retention at 21 days, prohibit agencies from using these cameras to surveil protected areas like health facilities providing abortion or gender-affirming care, and from potentially tracking people who are exercising constitutional rights like free speech by identifying their movements from protests. We do not believe this goes far enough, and we joined many who attested to this position.

Neither do groups like Stop Surveillance Now, which has recommended a “no” vote and instead supports a moratorium on all state-run surveillance technologies until risks from the federal government can be assessed.

At the very least, the House must strengthen SB 6002.

We are asking you to contact your legislator and demand significant amendments.

To truly keep our communities safe, lawmakers must limit data retention to no more than 7 days and prevent third party vendors and agencies from sharing our data without a warrant. You can learn more at the ACLU’s website.

Let’s be honest with ourselves. Our federal government’s authoritarian policies threaten Washington’s self-governance and values. Now is not the time to take risks, but to be honest about the ones we already face.

It is clear that the time has come to dismantle ICE and rethink the Department of Homeland Security, but that task lies at the feet of lawmakers in Washington DC. But few have the appetite or boldness to seriously consider answering the rising calls of their constituents.

This means our Legislature has a responsibility to regulate ALPRs, and resist falling prey to the allure of an advanced technology’s false promises of safety at the expense of our privacy.

Jaelynn Scott is the executive director of the Lavender Rights Project, and Danni Askini is the executive director of the Gender Justice League.