A Bipartisan Amendment Would End Police License Plate Tracking Nationwide

A proposed amendment would prohibit any recipient of federal highway assistance under Title 23 from using automated license plate readers for purposes other than tolling. The amendment is intended to be introduced at a House committee markup for a $580 billion, five-year reauthorization of federal surface transportation programs. Because Title 23 funds roughly a quarter of public road mileage, including many state, county, and city roads, the restriction would likely end or force major changes to state and local ALPR programs nationwide. The amendment’s single-sentence language would require recipients to remove ALPR cameras or restructure their use around tolling alone. The proposal is backed by lawmakers from different ideological backgrounds who share concerns about surveillance impacts as ALPR networks expand.

"A recipient of assistance under Title 23, United States Code, may not use automated license plate readers for any purpose other than tolling."

"The amendment runs a single sentence: "A recipient of assistance under Title 23, United States Code, may not use automated license plate readers for any purpose other than tolling." The amendment is brief, but its reach would be vast. Title 23 funds roughly a quarter of all public road mileage in the US, including most state and county arteries and many city streets where ALPR cameras are becoming ubiquitous."

"Conditioning that funding on a ban of the technology would, in practical effect, force any state, county, or municipality that takes federal highway money (essentially all of them) to either remove the cameras or restructure their use around tolling alone. The amendment's cosponsors, Perry and García, represent opposite ends of the House's ideological spectrum but converge on a surveillance concern that has gathered momentum in legislatures and city halls across the US as ALPR networks have quietly become a pervasive layer of American road infrastructure."

"US lawmakers plan to introduce an amendment Thursday at a House committee markup hearing that would prohibit any recipient of federal highway funding from using automated license plate readers for any purpose other than tolling-a sweeping restriction that, if adopted, would bring an immediate end to state and local ALPR programs across the United States."

Read at WIRED