Oregon just put its automated license plate readers on a much tighter leash, and Eugene, which helped spark the backlash, is now watching closely to see what that actually means on the ground.
Gov. Tina Kotek signed SB 1516 on March 31, 2026, creating new statewide limits on automated license plate readers and the companies that run them. The bipartisan measure, carried by Sen. Floyd Prozanski (D-Eugene), tightens retention, auditing and data sharing rules after months of local controversy. Eugene and other Oregon cities had already pulled back from vendor-run cameras amid concerns about federal access.
What the Law Does
Under the enrolled text, captured license plate data that is not tied to an ongoing criminal investigation or court proceeding has to be deleted within 30 days. Agencies must also adopt detailed policies for how they use automated license plate readers and how they write contracts with the vendors that operate them.
The new law bars vendors from accessing, selling or disclosing captured license plate data. It also requires vendors to provide searchable monthly audits and quarterly public audit reports, and it tells agencies to post those audit results within two days. These terms are set out in the bill text and legislative history on LegiScan.
Eugene’s Local Pullback
Community pushback helped drive the statewide conversation. Eugene announced it had ended its contract with Flock Safety on December 5, 2025, according to reporting by KLCC.
Earlier in 2025, the city had opted out of the company’s nationwide lookup feature. After that change, city officials told reporters there were no federal agency searches of Eugene’s automated license plate reader data and no searches tied to immigration enforcement, a point advocates later cited when testifying in Salem. That opt-out and the city’s assurances were detailed by Daily Emerald.
By the time SB 1516 reached the governor’s desk, Eugene’s experience had become a kind of cautionary tale for lawmakers wrestling with how much trust to put in third-party camera networks.
Encryption Fight and Watchdog Warnings
Privacy groups pushed hard for an explicit, statutory definition of “end-to-end encryption” that would guarantee vendors never have access to raw plate data. Lawmakers ultimately removed that explicit definition during committee work, which advocates say leaves a legal gray area around what kind of access vendors can still claim.
Supporters of a narrower encryption definition argued that it would prevent third-party or federal access through vendor channels. Law enforcement groups, on the other hand, warned that some of the technical fixes being floated would amount to costly architecture changes. The tug-of-war over encryption language and vendor access played out in floor debates and committee hearings, as reported by GovTech.
For a set of roadside cameras, the technology managed to stir up an unusually intense fight over who actually controls investigative data in Oregon.
Legal Implications
SB 1516 authorizes civil penalties for intentional or grossly negligent violations and allows private civil actions against vendors for misuse or improper disclosure of captured plate data. It requires detailed search logging, including who searched, when, the inputs used and the stated law enforcement purpose.
The law also forces officers to visually confirm a plate before making a stop, in an effort to reduce wrongful detentions when automated systems misread a number or letter. Those provisions and the audit requirements are laid out in the enrolled bill text for SB 1516.
What Comes Next
Because the measure includes an emergency clause, most of its provisions take effect as soon as the governor’s signature is dry. Local agencies now have to move quickly to revise contracts, tighten access controls and build out their auditing systems to match the new rules.
Sen. Prozanski has said he expects the multi-stakeholder work group that helped shape the bill to reconvene and draft administrative rules so agencies can keep up as the technology evolves. Privacy advocates, for their part, say they will be watching audits and vendor behavior closely and will press for clearer encryption language in future sessions if vendors or agencies try to retain informal access to plate data.
In other words, the law may be signed, but the fight over who gets to peek at Oregon’s plate data is not over yet.
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