Kehoe signs executive order to restrict use of license plate cameras

Our Take

Credit to KMIZ ABC 17 News for catching this one: Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe putting pen to an executive order restricting license plate reader use is the kind of story that deserves more than a local news cycle. Executive orders on surveillance tech don't happen because everything's going fine — they happen because lawmakers, sheriffs, or citizens started asking uncomfortable questions about who's watching the data, who can access it, and how long it sits in a database waiting to be subpoenaed, hacked, or abused.

We don't have the full text of the order yet, and we're not going to pretend we do. But the fact that a governor felt compelled to act at all tells you something: the ALPR rollout in this country has outpaced the guardrails. Flock Safety and similar vendors have spent years selling cities and counties on "it's just for solving crimes," while the actual footprint of these cameras — who can query them, how data gets shared across jurisdictions and even states — has stayed murky by design. An executive order is a start, not a finish line. Real accountability means public audit logs, hard retention limits, and bans on sharing plate data with ICE or out-of-state agencies chasing abortion or immigration cases.

If you're in Missouri or anywhere else wondering how many of these cameras are already pointed at your daily commute, check our camera map. And if this story makes you want to push your own city council or state legislature toward real limits instead of a press-release gesture, our take action page has the tools to get started.