Right now, cameras across Connecticut are recording every driver who passes by, capturing license plates, vehicle details, location, and the exact time, whether or not that driver has ever done anything wrong. These automated license plate readers, sold by companies like Flock Safety, aren't traffic cameras that catch speeders. They run around the clock, quietly building a record of where people go and when.

Each Connecticut town decides for itself whether to install these cameras, which company to use, and how long to hold onto the data they collect. That patchwork means a driver's privacy can depend entirely on which town line they cross. Roughly half of Connecticut's police departments already rely on this technology in some form.

State lawmakers passed a real step forward this year: agencies must generally purge this information within three weeks unless it's connected to an ongoing criminal case, and the data can't be used for immigration enforcement or to target people seeking reproductive healthcare, gender-affirming care, or exercising their First Amendment rights. But those protections don't fully take effect until October, and towns can keep expanding their camera networks in the meantime.

Gov. Ned Lamont has called on towns to hold off on new installations until the state finishes that guidance. That's a good instinct, but a request isn't a requirement. Connecticut needs Gov. Lamont and the General Assembly to make that pause mandatory statewide and guarantee every town follows the new privacy protections without exception, before more cameras go up and track more residents without their knowledge or consent.

Sign the petition to demand Connecticut make the camera pause mandatory and hold every town to the same privacy standard.