Tell St. Louis Park City Council to Constrain ALPR Use and Bolster Resident Privacy Protections
Automatic license plate readers (APLR) use cameras and software to capture, analyze, and store vehicle license plate information. ALPR systems compare license plate numbers against databases to generate alerts and create records of vehicle activity. Progress in the Park is concerned that the use of an ALPR system places residents at risk of unlawful surveillance and erosion of civil liberties.
We are encouraging St. Louis Park City Council to adopt ordinances to constrain ALPR use and bolster resident privacy protections more broadly by:
- Requiring City Council and police department approval for written and signed agreements with other law enforcement agencies across Minnesota, ensuring that all of these agencies comply with the Minnesota state law surrounding the use of ALPRs (MN Statute § 13.824) and do not have a section 287(g) agreement with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
- Requiring City Council to approve any increase in the number of Flock cameras or expansion of software features currently in use in St. Louis Park.
- Requiring City Council to approve any changes to Flock’s Terms of Service, User Agreements and/or Software End User Agreements that could extend the scope of resident data collection and analysis.
- Supporting the creation of an ALPR portal on the City’s webpage to include the vendor contract, terms of service and audits of all law enforcement ALPR data requests.
Write to the St. Louis Park City Council today to let them know that our community deserves more transparency when it comes to the surveillance of residents.
