Massachusetts State Police must now reveal where their license plate readers sit across the state, a Suffolk County Superior Court judge ruled this week. The court also ordered the agency to submit to audits detailing when, where, and what data the devices collect. Civil liberties groups are calling the decision a major step toward license plate reader transparency and stronger oversight of how agencies track residents.
How the Case Reached the Courtroom
The judge determined that state police had failed to justify withholding records tied to their network of automatic license plate readers. The ACLU of Massachusetts filed the underlying lawsuit, ACLU of Massachusetts v. Massachusetts State Police, in November 2023, seeking public records on what it described as a powerful and largely unregulated surveillance system.
According to the organization, the state’s database held more than 290 million records as of June 2023, information that let state police track specific vehicles and receive alerts drawing on plate scans collected over the previous 12 months.
Massachusetts Stands Apart From Other States
The ACLU noted that Massachusetts differs from 16 other states that provide little oversight of how law enforcement uses the collected data and don’t require a warrant before agencies can access it. The organization had submitted a public records request back in August seeking the rules governing state police access to the reader data, but officials had not responded by the time the lawsuit was filed.
Part of a Wider Backlash Against Surveillance Cameras
This ruling arrives as license plate reader systems, especially those made by Flock, face growing scrutiny well beyond Massachusetts. Several cities and counties have started declining to renew their Flock contracts, and some residents have taken direct action against the cameras themselves.
Kade Crockford, director of technology and justice programs at the ACLU of Massachusetts, pointed to a gap in public awareness. “People from cities and towns across the state have been organizing to push back against local police adoption of Flock and other license plate readers,” Crockford said in a statement. “But what many residents don’t know is that the Massachusetts State Police maintains its own statewide network of license plate readers.”
Other States Are Also Cracking Down
The pushback extends beyond Massachusetts. Just this week, the Florida Department of Transportation revoked local law enforcement agencies’ authority to install automatic license plate readers on state highways at their own discretion, citing misuse reports, data privacy concerns, and surveillance abuses.
As scrutiny of Flock and similar surveillance tools intensifies nationwide, courts and lawmakers increasingly appear ready to act on public frustration.
