9.24.26 UPDATE: a joint informational meeting on automated license plate reader systems for Monday, Sept. 28 at 9 a.m.

When the Upper Merion Area Spotlight first took a closer look at automated license plate readers operating in and around Upper Merion last month, one of the biggest questions was relatively simple:

Who makes the rules?

That question now has a much more concrete answer taking shape in Harrisburg.

Pennsylvania lawmakers are considering several proposals that would regulate, restrict or prohibit automated license plate readers, commonly known as ALPRs. One of them has now moved beyond the proposal stage and become an actual bill.

House Bill 2771 was introduced Sept. 10 by state Rep. Jennifer O’Mara, a Delaware County Democrat, and referred to the House Judiciary Committee on Sept. 14. As of Sept. 23, the bill has not received a committee vote and no committee meeting on the legislation is listed on the General Assembly website.

And there is a particularly local connection.

The House Judiciary Committee is chaired by Rep. Tim Briggs, whose 149th District includes Upper Merion Township, Bridgeport Borough and West Conshohocken Borough, along with part of Lower Merion.

That does not mean Briggs has endorsed HB 2771 or that the committee will advance it. But it does mean a bill that could significantly change the rules governing ALPR technology across Pennsylvania is currently sitting in a committee led by the state representative for much of the Upper Merion Area.

HB 2771 would add a new chapter to Pennsylvania’s Vehicle Code governing automated license plate readers.

The bill defines an ALPR system as one or more fixed or mobile high-speed cameras combined with computer technology that converts images of registration plates into computer-readable data. Toll-collection cameras, red-light cameras and other automated enforcement systems already authorized under state law are excluded from that definition.

Under the bill, state, county and local law-enforcement agencies could use ALPRs for legitimate law-enforcement purposes, criminal investigations and enforcement of federal, state and local laws. Government entities could also use the technology for parking enforcement and controlling access to secured areas.

The bill then states that ALPR use outside those authorized purposes would be prohibited.

It would also require officers or agencies manually entering a license plate into an ALPR system to document the reason for doing so, establish training requirements, and require policies that include an audit process for searches conducted by agencies and individual users.

For Upper Merion, one section may be particularly significant.

HB 2771 specifically says the new state law could not be interpreted to prevent a municipality from adopting or enforcing an ordinance that “penalizes, prohibits, permits or regulates” the operation of ALPR systems within its borders.

It would also preserve local ALPR ordinances enacted before the state legislation took effect.

In other words, HB 2771 would establish statewide rules while expressly leaving room for municipalities to create their own local rules.

That could potentially allow municipalities to take different approaches.

One community might permit ALPRs under certain conditions. Another could establish additional regulations. Another could prohibit their operation.

Exactly how broadly that authority would apply, particularly to privately operated cameras, could become an important question as the bill moves through the legislative process.

That issue is especially relevant in Upper Merion.

As the Upper Merion Area Spotlight previously reported, crowdsourced mapping shows fixed ALPR cameras around the township, including cameras that appear to be associated with private businesses or property owners. We have not established that those cameras are owned by Upper Merion Township, nor have we established what access Upper Merion Police may have to privately operated systems.

The bill goes considerably beyond deciding where cameras can operate.

It would place the Pennsylvania State Police in charge of determining how captured ALPR data is stored in a secure data-hosting environment. PSP could contract with a private company to administer the system, but the information would remain subject to the bill’s confidentiality requirements.

The legislation would also limit the sharing of captured data. Law-enforcement agencies could share information with other law-enforcement or criminal-justice agencies while performing official duties, but captured ALPR data would otherwise be treated as confidential.

The bill would specifically exempt the captured data itself from disclosure under Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law.

Retention rules would change as well.

Under the current bill language, captured data not directly related to a violation or active criminal investigation would generally have to be destroyed one year after the recorded event. Data connected to a case would generally have to be destroyed one year after final judgment, subject to other criminal-record laws. Agencies would also have to certify annually to the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency that required records had been destroyed.

That creates an interesting comparison with the policy currently published by the Upper Merion Police Department.

Upper Merion Police Policy 755 governs the department’s use of automated license plate readers and its participation in the Pennsylvania License Plate Recognition Network, or PALPRN.

The policy says normal PALPRN plate reads are retained for three years. Alarm reads are retained indefinitely. Audit logs are retained for three years, while ALPR data stored locally in a police vehicle’s mobile computer is retained for 30 days.

The policy also contains safeguards.

Investigative queries of the PALPRN database require approval from a command officer or supervisor, a police report must exist or be created, and the request must move through the department’s chain of command. The policy says PALPRN staff conduct the investigative database queries and return the results to the requesting officer.

PALPRN also maintains an audit trail of plate searches and functions accessed through the system.

If HB 2771 were enacted in its current form, Upper Merion’s existing policy and retention practices would have to be reviewed against the new statewide requirements.

HB 2771 is only one of several ALPR proposals circulating in Harrisburg.

Republican state Reps. David Rowe and Josh Bashline have proposed a two-bill package that would take a different approach.

One proposal would generally require government agencies to obtain a warrant before using certain automated surveillance technology to search for or track a specific person or license plate, except in emergency circumstances. It would also call for shorter retention periods and signage identifying ALPRs.

Their second proposal would specifically authorize municipalities to impose a moratorium on the installation and use of ALPRs within their boundaries.

As of Sept. 23, neither proposal has been formally introduced as a bill.

Meanwhile, Democratic Reps. Malcolm Kenyatta, Jessica Benham, Brandon Dukes and Joe McAndrew have circulated another proposal that would go considerably further. Their plan calls for prohibiting new ALPR systems and removing existing systems across Pennsylvania, with an exception for Turnpike cameras used solely for toll collection. That proposal also has not yet been formally introduced.

Gov. Josh Shapiro has separately expressed opposition to Flock Safety cameras specifically and has said he is open to legislation banning them. His administration has said Pennsylvania State Police and PennDOT do not own Flock cameras and will not permit them on Commonwealth property.

So while there is increasing activity in Harrisburg, there is not yet one agreed-upon approach.

Some lawmakers want tighter regulation.

Some want warrants and shorter retention periods.

Some want municipalities to have greater control.

Others want ALPR systems prohibited altogether.

The debate also reached Capitol Hill on Sept. 23.

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism held a hearing titled “Always Watching: Flock’s Nationwide AI Surveillance Network.”

Senators from both parties raised questions about privacy, data retention, security and the ability to search large networks of license plate information. Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley and the heads of three other surveillance-technology companies were invited but did not testify.

Witnesses discussed proposals including warrant requirements for historical location searches, limits on how long information can be retained, tighter rules for sharing data and independent security testing.

No federal law governing Flock or ALPR systems resulted from the hearing.

But it illustrates how quickly the policy conversation has grown since Spotlight first examined the cameras operating around Upper Merion.

Upper Merion already has a written ALPR policy.

Its police department already participates in a regional license plate recognition network.

Fixed ALPR cameras are also visible around the township, although questions remain about who owns some of them, who can access their information and whether privately operated cameras interact with law-enforcement networks.

Now Pennsylvania lawmakers are deciding whether statewide rules should govern systems like these and how much authority individual municipalities should retain.

And one of the bills addressing those questions is sitting before a committee chaired by Upper Merion’s own state representative.

As of Sept. 23, HB 2771 remains before the House Judiciary Committee. There has been no committee vote.

So the next question in our continuing WHAT THE FLOCK? reporting is fairly straightforward:

What rules will Pennsylvania ultimately adopt, and how much of the decision will remain in the hands of communities like Upper Merion?

We’ll keep following it.

Read HB 2771 and follow its status on the Pennsylvania General Assembly website

Read Upper Merion Police Policy 755

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Thank you for reading,

Corey