Alabama regulates law-enforcement plate readers under Ala. Admin. Code Chapter 265-X-6.The 2027 Legislative Session convenes February 2027. Speak up now.
Photo: LemononoM, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Safeguards

Keep the tool. Keep the guardrails. Punish misuse.

Supporters of plate readers should be the loudest voices for accountability, because every abuse hands opponents an argument to take the cameras away from the next kidnapped child. Here is what Alabama already requires, what agencies have added, and what a responsible program looks like.

Required by Alabama law

Chapter 265-X-6 baseline

  • Public-safety purpose only; no sale, no non-law-enforcement sharing
  • Access log and dissemination log for every use
  • Data off the camera within 24 hours; to the State Registry within 48
  • Five-year hard ceiling on retention
  • Published written policy before deployment
  • ALEA audit at least every three years; 90-day cure or suspension
  • Misuse investigated like NCIC misuse; annual report every April

Read the rule →

Adopted by Alabama agencies in 2026

Going beyond the rule

  • Covington County SO: limited deputy access, regular audits of usage, documented reason for every search, termination for misuse
  • Calera PD: seven-day retention with evidence holds, every user retrained and re-acknowledged the policy, chief reviews every search monthly
  • Gulf Shores PD: public transparency portal showing reads, searches, and crimes assisted; Foley and Orange Beach following
  • Moody & Springville: internal investigations ended in a firing and a resignation
Vendor policy, Aug. 2026

Platform-level changes

  • Default retention cut from 30 days to 7 (evidence mode preserves case data)
  • Officers must enter a specific reason for every search
  • Agencies choose which cases allow other departments to search their cameras
  • Mandatory “Audit Assistance” tooling for every customer by year-end

Source: WAFF, Aug. 15, 2026

A model-use checklist for Alabama agencies

Twelve practices that put a program on a defensible footing. Most are already required by 265-X-6; the rest are what the best Alabama agencies do voluntarily.

  1. Adopt and publish the written policy before the first camera goes live (r. .08).
  2. Name the accountable program administrator.
  3. Require a case, incident, or event number and a stated reason for every historical search.
  4. Treat an alert as a lead: verify plate, state, vehicle, and hot-list status before any stop.
  5. Individual accounts, role-based access, multifactor authentication; no shared logins.
  6. Short default retention with documented evidence holds; automatic purge.
  1. Monthly supervisory review of search logs, in addition to ALEA's three-year audit.
  2. Publish a transparency portal: cameras, reads, searches, hot-list hits, crimes assisted.
  3. Written sharing agreements; log every dissemination (r. .04).
  4. Documented initial and annual refresher training for every user.
  5. Fire and refer for prosecution on personal or curiosity searches.
  6. Report aggregate outcomes to the governing body every year — including the lives saved.
Close-up of a fixed license plate reader camera under a solar panel
This is the whole device. Photo: Tony Webster, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What a plate reader is, and is not

A fixed reader photographs the rear of a vehicle and its plate as it passes a single point, timestamps it, and compares the plate against hot lists (stolen vehicles, wanted persons, AMBER and Silver Alerts, missing persons). It does not use facial recognition, does not identify the driver, does not see inside the vehicle, and, in Chief Reece Smith's words, “doesn't see what driveway you turn into.” The plate is public by design: Alabama law requires it to be displayed for exactly this reason.