Why Conservative Republicans Are Worried About License Plate Cameras

Last month, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott froze state funding for automated license plate readers (ALPRs), acknowledging concerns about the warrantless surveillance enabled by such AI-assisted cameras. Abbott took that step the day after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a fellow Republican, declared that ALPRs are “out of control.”

Both governors cited recent reports about police officers accused of using ALPR data for personal purposes, which seem to be driving a shift in public opinion about the technology. Such incidents highlight the perils of giving cops across the country easy access to such data, which they can use to track your travels, identify nearby vehicles, and even predict your itinerary, without judicial oversight or meaningful internal supervision.

Abbott mentioned a Lufkin, Texas, police officer who was charged with using ALPR information to stalk an ex-girlfriend, her relatives, and her acquaintances more than 10,000 times. DeSantis alluded to similar cases in Florida, where officers in Sarasota and Haines City had recently been arrested for misusing ALPR data.

“When I see, like, a police officer using this to track, like, an ex-girlfriend,” DeSantis said, “I’m like, you know, what the hell’s going on?” Local officials are beginning to ask the same question.

As of Tuesday, the Institute for Justice counted 181 local governments that have canceled or declined to renew ALPR contracts since the beginning of 2025. In Texas alone, The Dallas Express reports, at least 23 jurisdictions have dropped contracts, suspended service, or reduced the size of their ALPR networks.

Some 7,000 police departments have installed those networks, which include around 140,000 cameras, without giving much thought to the privacy implications or the potential for abuse. But some of them are now having second thoughts, reflecting rising public skepticism of unconstrained ALPR use.

In a YouGov survey last month, 46 percent of respondents opposed police use of ALPRs, including 31 percent who were “strongly” opposed, while 38 percent favored the practice. A year ago, by contrast, YouGov found that 45 percent of Americans supported ALPRs, while 33 percent opposed them, including 20 percent who were “strongly” opposed.

That reversal coincides with proliferating reports of blatant ALPR abuses. The Institute for Justice has identified “well over 100” such incidents, which it notes “may be just the tip of the iceberg” given the reality of lax oversight and widespread data sharing.

Police officers are supposed to use that information, which they can access on computers or mobile phones, only for legitimate law enforcement purposes. But as a Wichita police supervisor conceded in 2024, it’s “not even possible” to enforce that policy by making sure that each search complies with it.

Compounding that challenge, each agency typically shares ALPR information with many others. Once that happens, The Wichita Eagle noted in 2022, local police officials have “no control over how those outside agencies use it and no way to flag unlawful searches.”

In Norfolk, Virginia, a local radio station reported last April, police officers often give “incomplete and imprecise reasons” for ALPR searches, including “suspect,” “suspicious,” and “investigation” or “inv.” Such vague labels hardly seem consistent with a state law requiring that cops state a “specific purpose,” including “the offense type,” thereby providing enough information to determine whether a search is legitimate.

“The police cannot police themselves,” says Institute for Justice attorney Robert Frommer. His organization argues that a warrant generally should be required to access ALPR data—a policy it aims to establish by challenging ALPR networks on Fourth Amendment grounds and urging states to enact protective legislation.

The congressional response to ALPRs, including several bills and an investigation that Sen. Josh Hawley (R–Mo.) announced last month, has been dominated by conservative Republicans, which confirms that the backlash is not limited to libertarian or left-leaning critics. Whether it will yield effective constraints is another question.

ALPRs are “easily containable,” Abbott says, a bit overoptimistically. “They’re going to be required to be used responsibly if they’re used at all.”

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