Atlanta is drafting its first citywide policy for automated plate readers. A council panel is weighing who may search camera databases, after Mayor Andre Dickens asked police to audit their own queries.
The audit flagged 79 searches from January to early September as questionable, roughly 0.07% of the total. Police revised department rules in September to define prohibited searches, set penalties and require monthly audits.
The driver behind it: officers in Dunwoody and Doraville stopped Alex Wittlin’s Pontiac Firebird in May, drew guns and handcuffed him. A camera had recorded his car while police hunted a domestic violence suspect who drove something similar.
Georgia treats misuse of plate data as an aggravated misdemeanour. Flock said it will cut default retention from 30 days to seven and require a case number per search from January, changes the ACLU’s Chad Marlow dismissed as “retreads of easily circumventable security measures.”
Pennsylvania shows the other path. Its House passed an ALPR bill this year and the Senate never voted, with no session time left.
