Massachusetts state police can no longer keep their license plate camera locations secret.
A superior court judge ruled that the state police must disclose where its automatic license plate readers, or ALPRs, are installed, ending a three-year legal fight the ACLU of Massachusetts began in 2023. At the time, state police held roughly 290 million records tracking vehicle movements. The judge found no valid justification for withholding the locations and ordered immediate release of the ALPR records. ACLU technology and justice programs director Kade Crockford said most residents don't realize state police run their own statewide camera network, separate from the local Flock deployments that have drawn most of the public scrutiny.
The ruling lands amid a broader backlash against license plate surveillance, from communities disabling Flock cameras outright to Missouri Senator Josh Hawley opening an investigation into the company last month. Massachusetts now becomes a test case for whether courts, not just legislatures, can force transparency onto a surveillance network that expanded for years with little public notice. ACLU senior policy analyst Jay Stanley called it the biggest grassroots pushback against surveillance technology he's seen in more than two decades at the organization.
Flock built a business on cameras nobody was supposed to notice. Now courts, senators from both parties, and residents resorting to guerrilla tactics are all noticing at once.