Source: Cascadia Daily News

Local law enforcement agencies in Washington have 180 days from March 30 to comply with the state’s newly enacted Driver Privacy Act regulating automated license plate readers (ALPRs). The law narrows permissible uses of ALPR data to investigations of felonies and gross misdemeanors, exempts such data from public records requests, shortens retention from 30 to 21 days, requires warrants to access privately held ALPR feeds (such as those in Home Depot and Lowe’s lots), and mandates removal of cameras from sensitive locations like health care facilities and places of worship. Agencies’ compliance actions vary: Bellingham Police ended agreements to access private Flock cameras, while Mount Vernon Police are updating policies and training deputies and expect six cameras to be fully operational by June.

Flock Safety, which serves nearly 100 Washington law enforcement clients and over 100 private businesses and homeowners associations in the state, says it is implementing software filters to block immigration-related searches and to prevent out-of-state access to Washington agencies’ data, and has rolled out an “Audit Assistance” tool to flag unusual search activity. Critics and researchers cited include the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which found ALPRs used out of state to track demonstrations and abortion seekers, and the University of Washington Center for Human Rights, which reported federal access to some local Flock data; advocates like ACLU Washington helped shape the law but say the protections — including the 21-day retention window and software filters — fall short without stronger oversight such as warrant requirements and human review of searches.