Bipartisan amendment would stop nationwide police plate tracking

A bipartisan amendment set for a House committee markup Thursday would bar anyone receiving federal highway funds from using automated license plate readers except for tolling—an abrupt change that would force many state and local ALPR programs to shut down or

On Thursday morning, a single sentence could decide what happens to thousands of automated license plate readers mounted across the United States.

At 10 am ET. the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will mark up a bill to reauthorize federal surface transportation programs for five years. totaling $580 billion. The amendment being prepared for that markup would prohibit any recipient of federal highway funding from using automated license plate readers for any purpose other than tolling—effectively ending most state and local ALPR programs nationwide if it’s adopted.

The proposed restriction is sponsored by Representative Scott Perry, a Pennsylvania Republican and Freedom Caucus member, and Representative Jesús “Chuy” García, an Illinois progressive. García’s state has become a flash point in the national fight over ALPR misuse.

Perry’s and García’s offices did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The amendment itself is brief: “A recipient of assistance under Title 23, United States Code, may not use automated license plate readers for any purpose other than tolling.”

That compact language is what makes the stakes feel immediate. Title 23 funds roughly a quarter of all public road mileage in the US. It includes many of the arteries that carry daily traffic—most state and county roads. along with many city streets where ALPR cameras have become common. If federal highway money comes with a ban on ALPR use beyond tolling. the pressure would land on almost every state. county. and municipality that relies on that funding.

In practical terms, jurisdictions would have to remove cameras outright or restructure their use so the technology is used only for tolling.

ALPR cameras are not subtle. They’re mounted on poles, overpasses, traffic signals, and police cruisers. They photograph every passing license plate, log times and locations, and feed that information into searchable databases that can be shared across agencies and jurisdictions.

Illinois—García’s home state—has already seen a direct clash over what that data sharing can become. Last August. Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias announced that an audit by his office found Flock Group. the Atlanta-based company that operates the country’s largest ALPR network. in violation of state law for providing US Customs and Border Protection access to Illinois ALPR data. Giannoulias ordered the company to cut off federal access.

Flock said at the time that it would pause federal pilots nationwide. The company had previously denied that arrangements existed. In public statements. Flock CEO and founder Garrett Langley said the information “inadvertently provided inaccurate information.” Flock did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Privacy advocates have argued for years that the system functions like warrantless tracking once plates are aggregated. indexed. and searchable across time and place. New York University School of Law’s Brennan Center for Justice has documented how ALPR feeds can be integrated into police data-fusion systems that combine plate data with surveillance and social media monitoring.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has documented a range of police misuse. That includes past targeting of mosques and the disproportionate deployment of the technology in low-income neighborhoods.

Court records obtained by the EFF and reported last year by 404 Media described one case from Texas involving a woman tracked through Flock’s network. The records say a Texas sheriff’s deputy queried Flock’s nationwide network—described as roughly 88. 000 cameras at the time—to track her because. as the deputy wrote. she “had an abortion.”.

The proposed amendment is being framed by supporters as a matter of basic governance over surveillance technology—especially given how quickly ALPR networks have spread.

Hajar Hammado, senior policy adviser at Demand Progress, says the Perry-García amendment is “commonsense.” She argues the country has become a “mass surveillance dystopia,” and points to the history of what she calls unsafe data practices as ALPR cameras continue to proliferate.

That’s the human pressure behind Thursday’s markup: if lawmakers truly want license plate readers restricted to tolling alone, then the current road map for law-enforcement surveillance would be forced to change—fast, and nationwide.

automated license plate readers ALPR Scott Perry Jesús “Chuy” García Title 23 House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Flock Group Alexi Giannoulias Garrett Langley privacy advocates EFF Brennan Center for Justice Demand Progress WIRED