License Plate Readers in Florida: What They Collect and How Long Police Keep It
Automated license plate readers, or ALPRs, are cameras that log passing cars. Florida treats much of what they collect as confidential.
How the cameras work
Florida law defines an ALPR system as one or more fixed or mobile high-speed cameras paired with software that turns plate images into data a computer can read, under Section 316.0777, Florida Statutes. The cameras can sit on poles, traffic lights or highway ramps, ride on patrol cars or be towed in on trailers, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Each scanned plate is checked against a "hot list" of vehicles police are looking for. A Tallahassee Police Department policy lists stolen cars, suspended licenses, AMBER and Silver Alerts and Homeland Security watchlists among the standard lists. That policy says a match alone is not grounds to stop a car until an officer confirms it.
What data they collect
Readers record the plate number along with the time, date and location, and many also photograph the vehicle, EFF says. Depending on the system, the data can include make, model, color and features like bumper stickers, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Stored records can be searched later to trace where a vehicle has been.
What Florida law says
Under Section 316.0777, ALPR images and data that contain personal identifying information, when held by an agency, are confidential and exempt from Florida's public records law. Police agencies can share the data with each other for official duties. A registered owner can get information about their own plate, unless it is part of an active criminal investigation. The law also bars using ALPRs to issue traffic tickets.
Section 316.0778 requires the Florida Department of State, working with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, to set a maximum retention period. The state's General Records Schedule GS2 for criminal justice agencies, in an edition that took effect in June 2023, covers these as "License Plate Recognition Records." Agencies may keep them until they are no longer needed, but no longer than three years unless they must be kept under another record category, such as a criminal case. Agencies can set shorter limits. Tallahassee's police policy, revised in August 2026, requires at least 30 days and lets the chief set a shorter maximum than the state's.
New limits in 2026
On Aug. 31, 2026, the Florida Department of Transportation revoked permits for local police license plate readers on state highways and gave agencies 30 days to remove them, Bloomberg reported.
Privacy concerns
Civil liberties groups say the cameras amount to mass tracking of people who aren't suspected of anything. EFF warns that the data can reveal visits to clinics, places of worship, union halls and protests, that it is widely shared among agencies and private vendors, and that misread plates have led to wrongful stops. The ACLU, which collected records from nearly 600 agencies, found that data is often kept for years with few privacy limits. It also found that real alerts make up only a tiny share of scans.
How we reported this: This explainer was drafted with AI assistance from the sources linked above, and every fact was checked against those sources. See an error? Contact us and we'll correct it.
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