Rochester, MN Privacy & Surveillance: License Plate Readers (2026)

City Code § 11-10-5 sits inside the residential permit parking chapter and describes exactly how Rochester replaced paper permits with license-plate enforcement. Instead of issuing a physical permit, the city requires each permit holder to submit the license plate number of the vehicle that will use the zone. Home health aide and similar workers who serve more than one residential permit zone must additionally provide the addresses of every property they serve within those different zones, so the system can match their plate to multiple authorized locations.

Law enforcement then uses automatic license plate readers to scan parked vehicles and flag any plate that does not match an address or permit record for that particular zone. The ordinance text itself does not specify a retention period for the scan data, a council-approval process for expanding the ALPR program, or any data-sharing policy with federal agencies; those operational details, if they exist, are set by police department policy rather than by this chapter. The zones this technology enforces are established under § 11-10-1 through a petition and city council process, and § 11-10-6 makes clear that even a resident along the restricted block must have a permit on file to park there legally during restricted hours, with exceptions for delivery, utility, and service vehicles that are clearly marked as such.