We, the undersigned residents of Kaua‘i, call on the Mayor, County Council, Kaua‘i Police Department, and all County officials to reject Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR) surveillance technology on our island.

These cameras do more than just take pictures of license plates. They create a searchable record of where people go, when they go, and who they might be with. The storage of persistent location history raises real concerns about privacy, civil liberties, and government overreach. Our freedom to drive around our community without being tracked is not just a privilege, it is a Constitutional Right.

In United States v. Jones (2012), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that putting a GPS tracker on a car and following it for 28 days was a “search” under the Fourth Amendment. Justices pointed out that long-term tracking can reveal a lot about a person’s private life, like where they live, who they spend time with, and what they do. In Carpenter v. United States (2018), the Court said the government needs a warrant to get detailed historical location data from cell phones because it creates an intimate picture of someone’s life.

Additionally, ALPR systems make it easy for data to be misused, accessed without permission, or shared with outside agencies, even when that is not the current stated purpose and we are told that will not happen. Once the cameras and databases are in place, the system can grow and be used for more things with no public notice or consent.

Across the country, there have been many documented cases of ALPR systems being misused by officers searching for personal reasons, wrong stops (and even arrests) based on bad reads, and data being shared with other agencies in ways that went against local rules. These examples show what can happen when this technology is in place, regardless of express rules or promises to the community.

By signing below, we the people of Kaua‘i call on our County leadership to:

1. Remove all ALPR cameras already installed on the island.
2. Cancel any and all contracts with vendors that store or manage this location data and permanently purge all location history data collected to date.
3. Adopt a formal policy or ordinance that prohibits the purchase or installation of any ALPR systems or other surveillance devices that store persistent, searchable data on the everyday movements of ordinary people.

We agree that searchable location history data should only be stored when there is due process and a warrant. We the undersigned do not consent to this technology in our community. Public safety should be built on trust, strong community relationships, and real solutions that respect individual rights, not from recording the movements of every person in our community. Kaua‘i is a place where we value freedom, privacy, and looking out for one another. Let’s keep it that way.