State lawmakers clamped down on the use of automatic cameras to track vehicles by their license plates years ago, and Vermont police have told the Legislature they no longer use such surveillance. But behind the scenes it was a different story: They just reached across state lines to do it, according to a data analysis by VTDigger. Vermont police departments conducted over 100 license plate searches since 2023, surveilling people under investigation when they traveled out of state, according to data VTDigger obtained through public records requests. The surveillance takes advantage of a loophole in a state law that was adopted more than a decade ago. The law set up strict rules around the use of license plate tracking data by Vermont law enforcement. The law was silent, however, on the use of a national network of cameras — which didn’t exist at the time — to track license plates of people when they travel out of state.
At issue is the tug and pull of the sometimes competing interests of public safety and privacy. Law enforcement officials say tracking license plates through surveillance helps them catch criminals, but cities and towns have protested access to such surveillance by police. License plate tracker cameras have been accused of making mistakes in communities across the country, such as misidentifying suspects in multiple cases, including a San Diego man who was falsely arrested and jailed for a month.
