We, the undersigned residents of Portland, Oregon, call on the Portland City Council, Mayor, Portland Police Bureau, and other local authorities responsible for automated license plate reader (ALPR) technology to:

• End the City's use of ALPR surveillance and terminate contracts and services with ALPR vendors.

• Remove City-operated ALPR systems from Portland's roads, neighborhoods, and public spaces.

• Prohibit private companies from using ALPR systems to conduct surveillance in Portland's public spaces.

What is an ALPR?
Automated License Plate Readers use cameras and software to capture and record information about vehicles traveling through public spaces. A "read" can include a license plate, vehicle characteristics, images, date, time, and location.

The issue isn't simply the camera.

It is the record of where people and vehicles have been—and the ability to search that record.

Our Fourth Amendment rights matter!
The Fourth Amendment protects people against unreasonable searches and seizures by the government.

When technology allows the government to systematically collect and retain information about people's movements, it raises serious Fourth Amendment questions. The Supreme Court has recognized that prolonged government surveillance can reveal an extensive and deeply personal record of where a person goes and who they may associate with.

ALPR technology raises similar concerns. People can be recorded as they move through public spaces even when they are not suspected of doing anything wrong. We should not have to surrender our privacy simply because we are driving on a public road. The Fourth Amendment sets a floor—not a ceiling—for our right to privacy.

Privacy protects everyone—but especially those at risk.
When innocent people are swept into a surveillance system, the consequences are not necessarily equal.

Immigrants and their families may fear that information about their movements could be used for immigration enforcement. LGBTQ people may have legitimate concerns about records that could reveal where they live, work, seek services, or gather with their communities. Activists, journalists, protesters, and others exercising their First Amendment rights should not have to worry that attending a demonstration or meeting could become part of a searchable government record.

These concerns are not hypothetical. ALPR databases have been used and shared in ways that raise serious questions about immigration enforcement and other government investigations.

Portland's current policy prohibits the use of ALPR data for immigration enforcement except when required by law and places restrictions on using ALPRs to gather intelligence at protected First Amendment activities. The fact that these protections have to be written into policy demonstrates why access to this information matters.

Privacy isn't about hiding wrongdoing.

Privacy protects the innocent from being watched, tracked, profiled, or misunderstood.

Public safety should not mean permanent surveillance.
We understand that law enforcement needs effective tools to investigate serious crimes and locate stolen vehicles or missing people.

But public safety does not require the routine collection of information about everyone who travels through our city.

Portlanders deserve to know:

What is being collected?

Who can access it?

How long is it kept?

Who can it be shared with?

And does the benefit justify the scale of surveillance?

We believe Portland should answer those questions and permanently remove this technology. 

Portland is not a surveillance city.
We are not asking Portland to choose between public safety and privacy.

We are asking Portland to protect both.

If you believe people should be able to move through their own city without having their movements routinely recorded and stored, sign this petition and share it with your neighbors, friends, and community.

Tell Portland's leaders:

End ALPR surveillance. Protect our Fourth Amendment rights.  Protect our privacy.  Protect our citizens.  

Join the coalition...

Deflock PDX
@DeflockPDX
deflockPDX@protonmail.com