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2026 Annual Town Meeting, Town of Arlington, MA
Article: 94
Warrant Article Title:
RESOLUTION / AUTOMATIC LICENSE PLATE RECOGNITION
SAFEGUARDS AND DRIVER PRIVACY
Warrant Article Text:
To see if the Town will vote to adopt a resolution opposing
widespread deployment of automatic license plate recognition as
a form of municipal surveillance absent strong guidelines, such as
local safeguards, a transparent public process, and state-level
driver privacy protections; or take any action related thereto.
Requested By:
Samuel Polk and ten registered voters
Report Excerpt:
This article has not been included in a report.
Vote Language:
That Town Meeting does and hereby resolves as follows:
To see if the Town will vote to adopt the following Resolution, or
take any action related thereto:
WHEREAS, “Automatic License Plate Recognition” (“ALPR”)
systems are networks of fixed or mobile cameras and software
that capture images of vehicle license plates and convert them
into searchable data, typically with associated date/time and
location information;
WHEREAS, ALPR systems can create detailed location histories
about residents, visitors, and workers, and therefore raise civil
liberties concerns and risks of misuse, over-collection, and
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unauthorized disclosure;
WHEREAS, poor data governance and inadequate security
controls have, in some jurisdictions, resulted in the public
exposure or improper disclosure of sensitive vehicle-location
information;
WHEREAS, in some jurisdictions, ALPR systems and ALPR-
derived location data have been used to identify or track
individuals seeking reproductive healthcare or engaging in
constitutionally protected First Amendment activity, including
peaceful protest;
WHEREAS, federal immigration enforcement agencies, including
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”), have used
access to large ALPR databases to locate and apprehend
individuals, and nationwide data-sharing practices can create
pathways for local data to be searched far beyond the community
that collected it;
WHEREAS, ALPR systems are increasingly being deployed by
municipalities in Massachusetts, including in nearby communities
such as Waltham and Boston;
WHEREAS, in other nearby communities, including Cambridge,
Watertown, and Natick, ALPR programs have been paused or
canceled following public concerns about privacy, data-sharing,
procurement process, oversight, and vendor compliance with
local directives or contractual obligations;
WHEREAS, the Town of Arlington has a long history of pursuing
equity and safety for all residents, including through the Town’s
2017 Community Trust Act Resolution, the Town’s Community
Equity Audit process, the Town’s 2025 Racial Equity Statement,
and the Arlington Police Department (APD)’s published Federal
Immigration Law policy emphasizing non-participation in civil
immigration enforcement in support of community trust in public
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safety;
WHEREAS, as an accredited agency, APD develops and
regularly reviews policies consistent with applicable law,
accreditation standards, and professional best practices, and
invites, considers, and incorporates community feedback through
established Town channels, including engagement with relevant
Town boards and commissions, to inform policy updates;
WHEREAS, Arlington previously piloted an ALPR program, and
APD leadership discontinued the program after internal review
indicated that the system’s alerts were largely associated with
minor traffic matters and appeared to fall disproportionately on
lower-income community members, raising concerns about
equity;
WHEREAS, Arlington has similarly recognized the need for strong
safeguards when surveillance technologies are considered or
deployed, including through Article 21 of the 2025 Annual Town
Meeting, “ACCEPTANCE OF LEGISLATION / CHAPTER 399 OF
THE ACTS OF 2024” (which included statutory data governance
provisions for school bus violation detection monitoring systems,
including limits on use, retention, and reporting), and through the
2022 Town Meeting face surveillance resolution entitled “A
Resolution that Government use of Face Surveillance should be
Further Limited in Order to Conform with Our Values”;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that Town Meeting
opposes any new deployment or substantial expansion of ALPR
systems by or on behalf of the Town of Arlington unless and until
the Town has publicly adopted, after public review and comment,
(i) a publicly available ALPR impact report describing the
proposed system and purpose and assessing equity, civil-rights,
and privacy impacts and mitigations; and (ii) a publicly available
ALPR use policy setting forth authorized uses and key safeguards
for retention and deletion, access controls, logging and auditing,
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and any permitted data-sharing agreements;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the ALPR impact report and
ALPR use policy shall together, at minimum, address the ALPR
system’s purpose and prohibited uses; equity impacts and civil-
rights and civil-liberties implications, and proposed mitigations;
retention and deletion practices; access controls, logging, and
auditing; any data-sharing or standing-access/real-time-feed
arrangements; vendor restrictions on secondary uses (e.g.,
training of vendor-owned artificial intelligence or machine learning
models); and annual aggregate public reporting;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that Town Meeting urges the
Select Board and Town Manager not to propose or enter into new
contracts for, or substantial expansions of, ALPR systems unless
and until strong statewide driver-privacy protections are enacted
and robust local safeguards are adopted through a transparent
public process;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that Town Meeting expresses its
support for state driver-privacy legislation, including H.3755, “An
Act Establishing Driver Privacy Protections,” and any substantially
similar successor legislation that protects Massachusetts drivers
by limiting the collection, retention, use, and sharing of ALPR data
and other vehicle-location information, and urges Arlington’s state
legislative delegation to support and prioritize such measures;
and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that Town Meeting directs the
Town Clerk to transmit copies of this resolution to Arlington’s state
legislative delegation and to any other officials the Select Board
deems appropriate.
