Hunter
12/11/25
The University of Iowa College of Law and the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa are calling on legislators to review privacy components of license plate readers.
The Daily Iowan reports the two entities called for local governments to carefully review existing license plate reader contracts and ensure the state has strict limits on data use and access to protect residents’ privacy at a digital news conference Wednesday.
This comes as the ACLU released their findings on an investigation into Automatic License Plate Reader, or ALPR, which are camera systems, primarily used by law enforcement, that automatically capture and record license plates on all passing vehicles, not just those suspected of violating a law.
The cameras log plate numbers, dates, times, and locations, creating detailed records of vehicle movements that can feed into national databases maintained by private surveillance vendors.
Their report also cited instances of law enforcement officials abusing the ALPR data, including Texas police tracking a woman who they believed had an abortion using Illinois data, and cases where police used the data to find and stalk previous romantic partners.
Compared to other Midwestern states, Iowa offers far fewer privacy protections than the surrounding regions.
The ACLU sent open-records requests to 48 law enforcement agencies in Iowa. They said Des Moines, Clinton, Fayette, Fremont and Mills police departments did not provide substantive responses, while others claimed data collected by the license plate readers was confidential under the Open Records Law.
ACLU policy and advocacy director Pete McRoberts said he hopes the Iowa Legislature passes a law that ensures the readers are used for appropriate reasons that protect people’s privacy.