Police council meets in Connecticut to adopt new regulations for automated license plate readers...
The short version: Connecticut's police training council is drafting statewide ALPR policy ahead of a new law, but model policies from law enforcement rarely limit law enforcement.
Our Take
NBC Connecticut's report on the Police Officer Standards and Training Council taking up ALPR regulations is worth watching closely, because this is exactly the kind of quiet procedural moment where surveillance policy gets locked in without much public input. When the people writing the rulebook are the same people who want more cameras on more roads, "recommended policy" tends to mean minimum friction, not meaningful oversight.
The real test isn't whether Connecticut adopts a policy — it's what's actually in it: retention limits, audit trails, restrictions on data sharing with ICE and out-of-state agencies, and real penalties for misuse. Model policies written by and for police councils have a track record of sounding responsible while leaving wide loopholes for data sharing and indefinite retention. Residents should be asking their local departments whether they're even covered by this new law, and what their current Flock contracts already allow.
If you want to see how many of these cameras are already running in your state, check the map, and if you want to push back on a policy before it's finalized, our take-action page has steps for showing up at the meetings where these decisions actually get made. Credit to NBC Connecticut for keeping a spotlight on a process that usually happens in rooms nobody watches.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of NBC Connecticut, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.