Mat-Su Assembly bans borough use of license plate readers, Sentinel reports

The Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly adopted an ordinance barring the borough from acquiring, installing or operating automated license plate readers, the Mat-Su Sentinel reported Sept. 21, 2026. The ban also blocks the borough from paying for the cameras or joining outside projects that use them, according to that reporting.

The borough's own public hearing notice confirms the measure, Ordinance 26-106, came before the Assembly on Sept. 15. The notice titles it an ordinance adopting borough code section MSB 23.30 to prohibit acquisition, installation and operation of plate reader systems and associated mass surveillance technology.

Records retrieved for this article do not establish the vote tally, the final effective date, or whether the new code reaches state troopers or city police departments operating inside the borough.

Alaska News previously covered the proposal, which would also bar borough departments from querying outside plate reader networks. Anchorage has moved in a different direction. Mayor Suzanne LaFrance's substitute surveillance ordinance, filed for the Anchorage Assembly's Sept. 15 meeting, keeps license plate readers and the Real-Time Crime Center running under policies written into municipal code. Anchorage Police Chief Sean Case told an Assembly work session on Aug. 21 that the department holds plate reader data for a maximum of 14 days and restricts search access to fewer than 10 employees.

At the Sept. 15 Mat-Su hearing, Assembly Member Stephanie Nowers backed the measure. "There's a lot of potential for abuse in it," she said. "I mean, maybe in the future they'll come up with some way to limit it so it just catches the good guys and ... doesn't just track everybody wholesale."

Assembly Member Bill Gamble, at the same meeting, described seeing cameras throughout Atlanta and Portland. "I want to make sure that we don't ever get to that spot in this borough," he said.

Assembly Member Dee McKee offered a counterpoint: "There is an upside to have the cameras because sometimes they catch people that do really bad things."