Demand ALPR Guardrails in New York

Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs) track millions of innocent New Yorkers every day, building a detailed record of where people go: their daily commutes, visits to doctors’ offices, places of worship, political rallies, and social activities.

Under current New York law, there are virtually no limits on how long our data can be kept, who can access it, or how it can be shared. New Yorkers across the state have made clear that enough is enough. New York needs clear, comprehensive, and commonsense guardrails on ALPR use now.

I’m writing to ask you to support and pass A.10808/S.9890, which would put commonsense privacy protections on invasive ALPR surveillance technology in New York.

There is little evidence that ALPR cameras make communities safer. They’re error-prone, have led to bad policing practices, and are an example of massive government overreach: far less than one percent of cars scanned by ALPRs are connected to any crime or wrongdoing. Their limited effectiveness does not justify the steep costs, or the deterioration of New Yorkers’ privacy rights.

ALPR technology is routinely abused by police and government agencies. Officers have used the tech to target protestors, arrest abortion seekers, stalk their ex-wives, funnel information to ICE, and more. In some cases, ALPRs were even used to build criminal cases against innocent people.

This legislation would ensure that ALPRs are only used for legitimate law enforcement purposes, require a warrant to access or share our data out-of-state, and mandate that our data is deleted within 48 hours unless used as evidence in an investigation or with judicial authorization. It would also require mandatory audit logs of every query, including who, when, and why searches occurred. The bill would require annual public reporting on camera locations, statistics, and privacy policies, and it would create a private right of action. This is an important deterrent to abuse given the many violations of ALPR laws in other states.

Passing this bill is especially important now, with companies compiling national networks of our license plate and vehicle information to further President Trump’s mass deportation machine and the FBI looking to build its own nationwide ALPR database.

Across the country and throughout New York, as people learn about the potential consequences of ALPRs, they are demanding their removal or at the very least tight guardrails. Already, over 200 localities have pumped the brakes on their local ALPR system. New Yorkers shouldn’t have to play whack-a-mole in town after town to protect their privacy. We need a statewide solution to the statewide problem that out of control, unregulated license plate readers have created.

We should all be free to go about our daily lives without fear of being tracked and surveilled. That’s why you must pass guardrails on ALPR technology in New York today.