ALPR technology from companies including Flock Safety gathers data and images for use by government agencies. Many law enforcement entities, for instance, have leaned on the cameras for help solving crimes.
Senate Bill 6002 by state Sen. Yasmin Trudeau, a Tacoma Democrat, passed Wednesday on a 40-9 vote; only Republicans voted against the measure. There are currently no laws in the state regulating the readers’ use.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle back the bill for its personal privacy-protection aims.
Trudeau told her Senate colleagues on Wednesday that she comes from a community with “heightened concerns about surveillance technology.” She said she views the bill as a way to ensure privacy is protected while the state meets expectations of accountability and transparency.
“For me right now, without this bill, anybody can access that information,” Trudeau said Wednesday on the Senate floor. “It is literally the wild, wild west when it comes to data protection.”
Many Democrats rallied behind the bill because it prohibits immigration enforcement from using ALPR data, while some Republicans also view it as a necessary step to prevent government overreach.
Multiple Washington cities have rolled back the use of Flock cameras in recent months, including Olympia and Redmond.
Trudeau praised her co-sponsor, Republican Sen. Jeff Holy of Cheney, for his willingness to work across the political divide. She noted that the former detective took some heat from conservatives over his support.
SB 6002 would limit the length of time that ALPR data can be preserved. Although the original bill set a cap of 72 hours, the measure was later amended to extend that time frame to 21 days after senators weighed input from law enforcement agencies, and there’s an exception for when such data is needed for evidence.
Republican Sen. Leonard Christian of Spokane Valley explained on the Senate floor that police have used cameras to track down robbery suspects later rather than engaging in a dangerous pursuit. He also disagreed that residents have a reasonable expectation of privacy when driving on public streets.
Critics of the technology have noted that ALPR has been harnessed to stalk ex-partners, and a police department in Texas last year tapped Washington state ALPR data as it conducted a nationwide hunt for a woman who’d had an abortion, a Feb. 4 news release from the Senate Democratic Caucus said. Eight or more Washington law enforcement agencies seem to have allowed their reader networks to be shared with U.S. Border Patrol in 2025, per research conducted by the University of Washington’s Center for Human Rights.
The bill would also bar such cameras from being used to track protests and other protected activities, as well as their use near food banks, schools, courts or places of worship.
Holy put a rhetorical question to his colleagues.
“Is anyone in this body who is seriously going to argue we do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy when it comes to every single movement being tracked — especially when it concerns what time you drop your kids out of school, where you attend religious services, what kind of doctor you visit?” he said ahead of the Senate vote.
The Washington state House of Representatives will now consider the legislation. March 12 marks the final day of the 2026 session.
© 2026 The Olympian (Olympia, Wash.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
