Utah lawmaker pushes for more state guardrails on automatic license plate readers
The short version: A Utah lawmaker is gearing up for another attempt at statewide ALPR guardrails, proof that Flock's spread keeps outpacing the laws meant to rein it in.
Our Take
KUTV 2 News in Salt Lake City reports that a Utah legislator is readying another push for statutory limits on automatic license plate readers, Flock Safety's included. The fact that this is a repeat effort tells you most of what you need to know: the first attempt either stalled or got watered down, and in the meantime police departments and private HOAs kept bolting more cameras onto poles with little to no public input.
This is the pattern we see state after state. ALPR networks expand quietly through vendor contracts and "public safety" pitches, and only after the dragnet is already in place does anyone in the legislature try to retrofit rules around it — retention limits, audit trails, bans on data sales to ICE or out-of-state agencies, that sort of thing. Guardrails matter, but they're a lot easier to pass before a few hundred cameras are already logging every car that passes. Utah residents who want to see how dense their local network already is should check our camera map before assuming this is a hypothetical problem.
Credit to KUTV for keeping this story on lawmakers' radar instead of letting it die in a committee room. If you're in Utah and want this bill to actually have teeth this time, our take-action page has concrete ways to make your voice heard before the next session, not after the cameras are already bolted on.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of KUTV 2 News Salt Lake City, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.