EFF and ACLU of Wisconsin Sue to End Warrantless License Plate Reader Searches

• The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the ACLU of Wisconsin have filed a petition with the Wisconsin Supreme Court to mandate warrants for retrospective searches of Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) databases.
• The challenge focuses on law enforcement practices in four Wisconsin cities: Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha, and Green Bay.
• The plaintiffs include the Wisconsin Council of Churches and a local pastor, citing the infringement of religious freedom and private association.

The Impact of ALPR Surveillance

• ALPR technology logs the movements of countless drivers, allowing police to aggregate data and retroactively track individuals in ways previously impossible.
• Such surveillance undermines the standard of individualized suspicion by enabling mass tracking of people attending religious services, political protests, addiction recovery meetings, or medical appointments.
• Religious organizations argue they have a heightened interest in location privacy, as their work involves sensitive counseling and confidential community support.

Legal Context and Precedent

• This filing is the EFF’s second major lawsuit challenging warrantless ALPR searches, following the precedent set in SIREN v. San Jose.
• The petition references a recent ruling by a federal court in Oklahoma, which became the first to classify ALPR systems as a form of "indiscriminate mass surveillance" and suppressed evidence gathered through such warrantless searches.
• The goal of the petition is to establish that the state constitution protects citizens from such broad, indiscriminate data collection by law enforcement.