Mat-Su considers banning plate readers before it has them

The Mat-Su Borough will consider banning automated license plate readers Tuesday — the same evening Anchorage continues a hearing on how to regulate a surveillance network that already includes them.

Mat-Su's proposal is preemptive, and in a borough with no police department of its own. The legislative file identifies no existing system, no proposed purchase, no vendor and no incident behind the measure, and borough records show no previous acquisition.

Ordinance 26-106 would bar borough departments, employees and contractors from buying, installing or operating plate-reader systems. It would also prohibit the borough from querying, uploading to or receiving information from outside plate-reader networks — closing off access to data collected by cameras the borough doesn't own, which is how most local governments encounter the technology in the first place.

The ordinance says the systems create a permanent record of ordinary people's movements without a warrant or suspicion of wrongdoing, and concludes that the risks of sharing that information with private companies or federal agencies outweigh the claimed public-safety benefits.

What the file doesn't contain is an explanation. The legislative memo, signed on behalf of sponsor Michael Bowles by Borough Attorney Nicholas Spiropoulos, repeats those findings but doesn't say what prompted the proposal.

Law-enforcement research presents a competing interest. Plate readers can rapidly compare passing vehicles against lists of stolen plates, wanted people and vehicles connected to investigations, and a National Institute of Justice handbook found agencies reported more stolen-vehicle recoveries and arrests using them. The same handbook warns the systems require careful controls over data quality, security and privacy. Communities around the country have recently paused or restricted the technology over questions about who can search the information and how long it is kept.

The Alaska contrast is unfolding in real time. Anchorage is debating how to regulate a surveillance system it has already assembled. Mat-Su would prohibit borough participation before such a system exists.

The ban's reach has limits. It would apply to borough agencies, spending and contracts — not to the Alaska State Troopers or the Palmer and Wasilla police departments, which operate inside the borough but aren't borough entities. That distinction stands even as the borough separately explores financing a new facility for the troopers and leasing it back to the state.

The public hearing begins at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Assembly chambers in Palmer.