Friend –

Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) have expanded rapidly in Iowa, building an enormous and powerful surveillance network, often assisted by artificial intelligence. They are raising a whole new set of privacy, security, legal, and justice concerns.

To be clear: ALPRs are not speed cameras. They are not "red light" cameras. They're worse: these cameras are placed along roadways throughout Iowa and take thousands of snapshots of the license plates of all the vehicles that drive by, whether the driver does anything wrong or not. And this location data, taken together, creates a searchable record that can be used by the government to track a person's comings and goings – to doctor's offices, religious institutions, political gatherings, and protests. ALPR national databases have too few privacy protections, a very high error rate, and have been subject to predictable, documented abuse.

Read more about ALPRs in Iowa on our website.

Until now, there's not been a good survey of how many of these are in Iowa, where they are, how they are used, what limits there are on their use, and who has access to them. So to investigate how this technology is being used, the ACLU of Iowa engaged the Technology Law Clinic at the University of Iowa College of Law to conduct independent research on the use of ALPRs in Iowa.

They surveyed 48 law enforcement agencies in Iowa, sending open records requests and analyzing the responses. Key findings include:

• Law enforcement using these devices often are not open about even the most basic facts, such as the number and location of their ALPR – all paid for by the taxpayers.
• Government officials approving and using ALPRs are often not well-informed about how they work and how the data on their communities is being used.
• Iowa has no meaningful laws that limit how ALPRs are used, where they're placed, when, why, and how data is collected, stored, accessed, and shared, or limiting their use of AI.

Find out more about how you can join the effort to pump the brakes on ALPRs in Iowa.

In solidarity,

ACLU of Iowa