MONTGOMERY, Ala. — State Sen. Arthur Orr believes the next legislative session will bring an opportunity to place firmer limits on law enforcement use of Flock cameras, and he says the 2021 law he helped pass did not go far enough.
Orr, a Republican from Decatur, sponsored legislation five years ago that imposed some restrictions on license plate reader cameras. Speaking during a radio interview Thursday, he made clear he considers that framework inadequate.
Policies he calls ‘very, very loose’
“When the legislation ran into a lot of headwinds from my colleagues at the time, the best deal I could cut at the time was to get ALDOT to put policies in place, and I was assured by the transportation director at the time, Mr. Cooper, that they would, and they did,” Orr said. “In my opinion, they’re very, very loose. They’re not as tight as I would like to see.”
The political environment has shifted since then. Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley recently apologized for instances of misuse of the technology by officials, and backlash against automated license plate readers has grown across the country.
Starting with a more basic question
Orr suggested lawmakers may need to begin further upstream than regulation.
“Now that it seems, as you say, the public has awakened, I’m ready to revisit the issue and really clamp down on these,” he said. “If the public even wants them at all, and I think that’s the initial debate out of the gate: do we do we even want to have them? And then, if we do, we really need to put some restrictions and guardrails and more limitations on the usage of them.”
Support for police, with checks
Orr was careful to separate his concerns about the technology from his position on law enforcement generally.
“And we all know we support the police, but they’re bad actors among the police,” he said. “And what happens if you get a cop that wants to check up on his girlfriend and see where she’s going, or somebody else, or a business associate, or whatever? We don’t need that, and if that happens, they need to be punished accordingly.”
The constitutional question — and the practical one
Notably, Orr does not argue that the cameras violate the Constitution. His case rests on a different foundation: that private companies are operating commercial surveillance infrastructure in publicly owned space, which gives the state clear authority to set terms.
“My real problem is these companies are using government right away to do this. So that gives us the right to really come in and limit how they’re used,” Orr said. “[On] your private property, a license plate reader that reads vehicle tags as they come by, there is nothing that you could do to to stop that, but using government airspace above interstates and other roadways, etc. That’s where we get involved and are able to draw some lines around.”
That distinction — between private property and public right-of-way — is likely to shape how any future Alabama legislation is drafted, and it sidesteps the Fourth Amendment arguments that other officials have advanced.
A widening debate
Orr joins a growing list of Alabama officials weighing in on license plate readers. State Auditor Andrew Sorrell has called for the cameras to be removed entirely. Others have raised Fourth Amendment objections, while some in law enforcement have defended the technology’s role in solving crimes. The question appears headed for the 2027 legislative session.