Lawrence, MA Privacy & Surveillance: License Plate Readers (2026)

Chapter 9.25 of the Lawrence Code, adopted by Doc. 133/2018 and effective September 21, 2018, defines surveillance technology at Section 9.25.020.E to include, among other listed devices, automatic license plate readers at subsection E.1(b). Section 9.25.030.A then requires that any municipal entity, meaning any city government agency, department, bureau, or unit, obtain approval from the city council, subsequent to a mandatory, properly-noticed, pertinent, public hearing at which the public is afforded a fair and adequate opportunity to provide testimony, before seeking funds for an ALPR system, acquiring or borrowing ALPR units, using ALPR data for a new purpose, or sharing ALPR data with another agency.

Before the council can approve an ALPR program, Section 9.25.040 requires the requesting department to submit a public surveillance impact report describing how the readers work, their proposed purpose, and any civil-liberties impact, plus a written surveillance use policy covering authorized uses, data retention limits, and rules for sharing plate-read data with outside agencies, including a required explanation of why the retention period is no longer than necessary. Section 9.25.050 forces the same public approval process onto any ALPR system already running before the chapter took effect, and gives the city 180 days from submission to approve it or the department must stop using it. Once approved, Section 9.25.090 requires an annual public report on how the ALPR data was used, shared, and geographically deployed, due every March 31, and Section 9.25.100 lets any person sue for injunctive or declaratory relief, or move to suppress evidence, over an ALPR program that skipped this approval process.