§ 1607. Automated license plate recognition systems [Effective July 1, 2025; see also 23 V.S.A. § 1607 effective until July 1, 2025 set out above]
(a) Operation. A Vermont law enforcement officer shall be certified in ALPR operation by the Vermont
Criminal Justice Council in order to operate an ALPR system.
(b) ALPR use and data access; confidentiality.
(1)(A) Deployment of ALPR equipment by Vermont law enforcement agencies is intended to provide
access to law enforcement reports of wanted or stolen vehicles and wanted persons
and to further other legitimate law enforcement purposes. Use of ALPR systems by law
enforcement officers and access to active data are restricted to legitimate law enforcement
purposes.
(B) Active data may be accessed by a law enforcement officer operating the ALPR system
only if the law enforcement officer has a legitimate law enforcement purpose for the
data. Entry of any data into the system other than data collected by the ALPR system
itself must be approved by a supervisor and shall have a legitimate law enforcement
purpose.
(C)(i) Requests to access active data shall be in writing and include the name of the requester,
the law enforcement agency the requester is employed by, if any, and the law enforcement
agency’s Originating Agency Identifier (ORI) number. To be approved, the request must
provide specific and articulable facts showing that there are reasonable grounds to
believe that the data are relevant and material to an ongoing criminal, missing person,
or commercial motor vehicle investigation or enforcement action. The written request
and the outcome of the request shall be transmitted to VIC and retained by VIC for
not less than three years.
(ii) In each department operating an ALPR system, access to active data shall be limited
to designated personnel who have been provided account access by the department to
conduct authorized ALPR stored data queries. Access to active data shall be restricted
to data collected within the past seven days.
(2)(A) A VIC analyst shall transmit historical data only to a Vermont or out-of-state law
enforcement officer or person who has a legitimate law enforcement purpose for the
data. A law enforcement officer or other person to whom historical data are transmitted
may use such data only for a legitimate law enforcement purpose. Entry of any data
onto the automated traffic law enforcement storage system other than data collected
by an ALPR system itself must be approved by a supervisor and shall have a legitimate
law enforcement purpose.
(B) Requests for historical data within six months after the date of the data’s creation,
whether from Vermont or out-of-state law enforcement officers or other persons, shall
be made in writing to a VIC analyst. The request shall include the name of the requester,
the law enforcement agency the requester is employed by, if any, and the law enforcement
agency’s ORI number. To be approved, the request must provide specific and articulable
facts showing that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the data are relevant
and material to an ongoing criminal, missing person, or commercial motor vehicle investigation
or enforcement action. VIC shall retain all requests and shall record in writing the
outcome of the request and any information that was provided to the requester or,
if applicable, why a request was denied or not fulfilled. VIC shall retain the information
described in this subdivision (b)(2)(B) for not fewer than three years.
(C) After six months from the date of its creation, VIC may only disclose historical data:
(i) pursuant to a warrant if the data are not sought in connection with a pending criminal
charge; or
(ii) to the prosecution or the defense in connection with a pending criminal charge and
pursuant to a court order issued upon a finding that the data are reasonably likely
to be relevant to the criminal matter.
(3) Active data and historical data shall not be subject to subpoena or discovery, or
be admissible in evidence, in any private civil action.
(4) Notwithstanding any contrary provisions of subdivision (2) of this subsection, in
connection with commercial motor vehicle screening, inspection, and compliance activities
to enforce the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, the Department of Motor Vehicles
(DMV):
(A) may maintain or designate a server for the storage of historical data that is separate
from the automated traffic law enforcement storage system;
(B) may designate a DMV employee to carry out the same responsibilities as a VIC analyst
and a supervisor as specified in subdivision (2) of this subsection (b); and
(C) shall have the same duties as the VIC with respect to the retention of requests for
historical data.
(c) Retention.
(1) Any ALPR information gathered by a Vermont law enforcement agency shall be sent to
the Department of Public Safety to be retained pursuant to the requirements of subdivision
(2) of this subsection. The Department of Public Safety shall maintain the automated
traffic law enforcement storage system for Vermont law enforcement agencies.
(2) Except as provided in this subsection and section 1608 of this title, information gathered by a law enforcement officer through use of an ALPR system
shall only be retained for 18 months after the date it was obtained. When the permitted
18-month period for retention of the information has expired, the Department of Public
Safety and any local law enforcement agency with custody of the information shall
destroy it and cause to have destroyed any copies or backups made of the original
data. Data may be retained beyond the 18-month period pursuant to a preservation request
made or disclosure order issued under section 1608 of this title or pursuant to a warrant issued under Rule 41 of the Vermont or Federal Rules of
Criminal Procedure.
(d) Oversight; rulemaking.
(1) The Department of Public Safety, in consultation with the Department of Motor Vehicles,
shall establish a review process to ensure that information obtained through use of
ALPR systems is used only for the purposes permitted by this section. The Department
of Public Safety shall report the results of this review annually on or before January
15 to the Senate and House Committees on Judiciary and on Transportation. The report
shall contain the following information based on prior calendar year data:
(A) the total number of ALPR units being operated by government agencies in the State,
the number of such units that are stationary, and the number of units submitting data
to the automated traffic law enforcement storage system;
(B) the number of ALPR readings each agency submitted, and the total number of all such
readings submitted, to the automated traffic law enforcement storage system;
(C) the 18-month cumulative number of ALPR readings being housed on the automated traffic
law enforcement storage system as of the end of the calendar year;
(D) the total number of requests made to VIC for historical data, the average age of the
data requested, and the number of these requests that resulted in release of information
from the automated traffic law enforcement storage system;
(E) the total number of out-of-state requests to VIC for historical data, the average
age of the data requested, and the number of out-of-state requests that resulted in
release of information from the automated traffic law enforcement storage system;
(F) the total number of alerts generated on ALPR systems operated by law enforcement officers
in the State by a match between an ALPR reading and a plate number on an alert storage
system and the number of these alerts that resulted in an enforcement action;
(G) the total number of criminal, missing person, and commercial motor vehicle investigations
and enforcement actions to which active data contributed, and a summary of the nature
of these investigations and enforcement actions;
(H) the total number of criminal, missing person, and commercial motor vehicle investigations
and enforcement actions to which historical data contributed, and a summary of the
nature of these investigations and enforcement actions; and
(I) the total annualized fixed and variable costs associated with all ALPR systems used
by Vermont law enforcement agencies and an estimate of the total of such costs per
unit.
(2) The Department of Public Safety may adopt rules to implement this section. (Added 2013, No. 69, § 1; amended 2015, No. 169 (Adj. Sess.), § 8; 2017, No. 175 (Adj. Sess.), § 3, eff. May 25, 2018; 2023, No. 135 (Adj. Sess.), § 1a, eff. July 1, 2025.)