License plate readers capture the locations of thousands of Utah vehicles every day. But what happens to that information after it's collected is drawing new scrutiny from state lawmakers.
For years, police departments across Utah have used automated license plate readers to help find vehicles connected to crimes and other investigations. But the cameras — which record where and when a vehicle is spotted — have faced growing backlash nationwide over privacy, data sharing, and documented cases of police misuse. Dozens of communities across the U.S. have canceled contracts or deactivated cameras this year.
Utah law already restricts how police can use data collected by the cameras. But during a legislative committee meeting Wednesday, state Sen. Calvin Musselman pressed law enforcement on another question.
“Who ultimately controls the Utah-generated data?" he asked. "Does a Utah agency? Or does a Utah vendor?”
Herriman Police Chief Cody Stromberg said that's something that needs to be more clearly defined.
“There ought to be an express restriction that says that Utah law enforcement agency owns the data," he said, "and that the vendor or any third party can't do anything else with it outside of the parameters outlined in the contract.”
The issue gets more complicated because those contracts aren't uniform across the state. Stromberg said Utah law enforcement agencies have all taken different approaches to negotiating with license plate reader companies.
“We've admittedly not been on the same page of how we negotiate with vendors, what we require of the vendors, who signs the contract," he said. "With whom are we signing contracts, are we allowing out-of-state contracts or not? All those things are so varied across the state.”
Lawmakers also questioned whether data collected in Utah could be used by vendors to train artificial intelligence.
Stromberg couldn't say what every agency has agreed to in its contract, or whether Utah data has actually been used for that purpose, but he acknowledged some contract provisions may have been overlooked.
The scrutiny comes about a month after Gov. Spencer Cox called for a review of automated license plate readers in Utah.
“There's been stories now coming from agencies across the United States where law enforcement individuals have accessed those cameras for personal reasons, for reasons outside of the law enforcement chain," he said. "I think Americans should be deeply concerned about that.”
That review is now underway.
Utah Chief Privacy Officer Christopher Bramwell told lawmakers the state is developing what he called a “comprehensive LPR review framework.” And he added that part of the challenge is separating which concerns reflect current law enforcement practices and which are based on what the technology could potentially allow.
“We're hearing lots of discussion or conflation of ‘What is law enforcement actually doing?’ versus ‘What is the system capable of?’” Bramwell said.
The review is expected to produce recommendations for additional protections or guardrails.
Meanwhile, lawmakers are already moving ahead with legislation that would govern how the technology and the data it collects should be used.
