Albany Automated License Plate Recognition Accountability, Privacy, and Public Trust Ordinance

ORDINANCE NO. ________

AN ORDINANCE ADDING CHAPTER ____ TO THE ALBANY MUNICIPAL CODE; ESTABLISHING A FAIR, CONSTITUTIONAL, AND COMPREHENSIVE LOCAL FRAMEWORK FOR AUTOMATED LICENSE PLATE RECOGNITION SYSTEMS; PROHIBITING CITY OPERATION AND USE OF AUTOMATED LICENSE PLATE RECOGNITION SYSTEMS; PROHIBITING CITY ACCESS TO PUBLIC OR PRIVATE AUTOMATED LICENSE PLATE RECOGNITION DATA EXCEPT UNDER NARROW LEGAL-PROCESS, INCIDENT-REPORT, OR EMERGENCY CONDITIONS; REGULATING PRIVATE AUTOMATED LICENSE PLATE RECOGNITION SYSTEMS THAT CAPTURE PUBLIC-RIGHT-OF-WAY OR PUBLIC-FACING TRAFFIC; PRESERVING PARKING-FACILITY MANAGEMENT, SECURED-AREA ACCESS CONTROL, AND CRIME-VICTIM REPORTING; PROTECTING ORDINARY SECURITY CAMERAS, JOURNALISM, PHOTOGRAPHY, AND EXPRESSIVE ACTIVITY; ESTABLISHING NOTICE-AND-CURE, HEARING, TRANSPARENCY, DATA-DELETION, AUDIT, COMPLAINT, ENFORCEMENT, NONRETALIATION, AND SEVERABILITY PROVISIONS; AND DECLARING AN EFFECTIVE DATE.

WHEREAS, the City of Albany has a duty to protect public safety, constitutional rights, civil liberties, privacy, public trust, and accountable local government; and

WHEREAS, public safety and civil liberties are not opposing values, and effective public safety depends on community trust, clear rules, narrow authority, auditability, and constitutional restraint; and

WHEREAS, Article XI, section 2 of the Oregon Constitution and the Albany Charter grant the City authority over civil matters of local concern, and under La Grande/Astoria v. Public Employes Retirement Board, 281 Or 137 (1978), local civil regulations remain valid unless the Legislative Assembly unambiguously intended to displace them; and

WHEREAS, sections 3 to 9, chapter 77, Oregon Laws 2026 (Enrolled Senate Bill 1516), establish a statewide floor for law-enforcement use of automated license plate recognition systems — including authorized purposes, thirty-day ordinary retention, search-entry logs, visual confirmation before traffic stops, data-sharing limits, monthly and quarterly vendor audits, published policies, encryption and federal Criminal Justice Information Services compliance terms, vendor liability, and the public-records treatment in ORS 192.345 (44) — while regulating only law-enforcement agencies and their vendors, requiring no city to operate any such system, and expressing no intent to displace local regulation of a city's own departments, resources, contracts, or rights-of-way; and

WHEREAS, automated license plate recognition systems are not ordinary cameras when they convert images of vehicles, license plates, locations, times, travel direction, vehicle characteristics, and related metadata into searchable, machine-readable movement records; and

WHEREAS, a single observation of a vehicle in public is categorically different from persistent, networked, searchable, time-stamped, location-stamped, and shareable records of public movement, a distinction the Oregon Supreme Court recognized in State v. Campbell, 306 Or 157 (1988), in holding that technology-assisted tracking of a vehicle can constitute a search under Article I, section 9, of the Oregon Constitution; and

WHEREAS, captured license plate data can reveal or help infer where a person lives, works, worships, receives medical care, obtains legal assistance, attends court, attends school, seeks social services, participates in political activity, attends public meetings, associates with others, or travels in ordinary daily life, and may chill rights protected by Article I, sections 8, 9, 26, and 27 of the Oregon Constitution and the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution; and

WHEREAS, ORS 181A.250 prohibits law-enforcement collection and maintenance of information about the political, religious, or social views, associations, or activities of individuals and organizations except as directly related to a criminal investigation, and ORS 181A.820 and 181A.826 restrict the use of public resources, equipment, technology, facilities, and personnel for federal immigration enforcement, and Senate Bill 1516 itself conditions law-enforcement ALPR use on compliance with those statutes; and

WHEREAS, the risk presented by automated license plate recognition systems is not limited to City-owned equipment, because privately operated systems may collect public movement data and make that data available to law enforcement, vendors, commercial databases, third-party networks, or other governmental entities; and

WHEREAS, the City Council finds that the City should not do indirectly through private vendors, private property owners, interagency requests, subscription databases, or third-party networks what the City has chosen not to do directly; and

WHEREAS, the City Council also recognizes that ordinary security cameras, access-control systems for genuinely secured areas, parking-facility management on an operator's own premises, the reporting of specific crimes by victims and witnesses, journalism, photography, video recording, and expressive activity are lawful and valuable activities that are not the target of this chapter, and that Senate Bill 1516 itself recognizes parking regulation and secured-area access control as legitimate uses; and

WHEREAS, on May 27, 2026, after one of the largest volumes of public comment in recent Council memory, the City Council voted 4-2 to cancel the City's contract for a networked automated license plate recognition system effective immediately, and the Council requested legal analysis of the City's authority to regulate public and private automated license plate recognition systems within city limits; and

WHEREAS, on July 8, 2026, the City Attorney delivered that analysis as a verbal briefing, no ALPR chapter exists in the Albany Municipal Code, and the City Council directed staff to explore a disclosure or signage ordinance at a subsequent work session, such that any chapter adopted on this subject would be the City's first codified regulation of automated license plate recognition systems; and

WHEREAS, the City has previously regulated privately owned technology deployed on private commercial property, including placement restrictions and abatement authority for cryptocurrency kiosks under Chapter 7.06 of the Albany Municipal Code (Ordinance 6064, 2025), demonstrating the City's established practice of regulating where and how private equipment may operate within city limits; and

WHEREAS, the City Council intends this chapter to regulate automated surveillance infrastructure, machine-readable license plate extraction, location-data retention, database searchability, data sharing, and governmental use of captured license plate data, not speech, opinion, journalism, ordinary photography, or ordinary non-ALPR security cameras; and

WHEREAS, the City Council intends this chapter to be fair to residents, businesses, property owners, workers, visitors, and public servants alike, providing clear rules, advance notice, education-first enforcement, opportunities to cure, impartial hearings, and proportionate penalties; and

WHEREAS, the City Council intends this chapter to be fair, neutral, civil, noncriminal, constitutional, severable, and enforceable to the maximum extent permitted by the Oregon Constitution, the United States Constitution, Oregon statutes, federal law, and the City of Albany Charter;

NOW, THEREFORE, THE PEOPLE OF THE CITY OF ALBANY DO ORDAIN AS FOLLOWS:

SECTION 1. TITLE.

This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the Albany Automated License Plate Recognition Accountability, Privacy, and Public Trust Ordinance.

SECTION 2. PURPOSE.

The purposes of this chapter are to:

A. Protect public safety, constitutional rights, civil liberties, privacy, and community trust;

B. Prohibit the City of Albany from operating, deploying, purchasing, leasing, subscribing to, contracting for, testing, piloting, maintaining, or using automated license plate recognition systems;

C. Prohibit the City of Albany from requesting, receiving, purchasing, accessing, searching, relying upon, or using captured license plate data from public or private sources except under narrow legal-process, incident-report, or emergency conditions;

D. Prevent public agencies from avoiding local limits by using private databases, third-party networks, other agencies, vendors, or contractors;

E. Regulate private automated license plate recognition systems that are positioned or configured to capture public-right-of-way traffic or public-facing vehicle movement within the City, while preserving legitimate parking-facility management and secured-area access control on an operator's own premises;

F. Prevent the creation of unaccountable public or private searchable databases of ordinary vehicle movement within the City;

G. Preserve lawful ordinary security cameras, photography, journalism, recording of public officials, expressive activity, crime-victim and witness reporting, and non-networked secured-area and parking-facility systems;

H. Require deletion, certification, transparency, audits, complaint procedures, and proportionate civil enforcement with notice, cure, and hearing rights;

I. Provide narrow exceptions for controlling law, court-issued process, voluntary reports of specific crimes, and true emergencies involving imminent risk of death, serious physical injury, kidnapping, or missing endangered persons, including persons who are the subject of an Amber Alert or Silver Alert;

J. Preserve the maximum lawful portions of this chapter if any part is later narrowed, invalidated, preempted, or held unenforceable.

SECTION 3. DEFINITIONS.

For purposes of this chapter, unless the context requires otherwise:

A. "Alert" means any notification, match, flag, hit, message, signal, report, prompt, or automated output generated by an ALPR system indicating that a license plate number, partial license plate number, vehicle image, vehicle characteristic, vehicle location, or related data corresponds to information contained in a database, hot list, watch list, warrant list, investigative file, record system, subscription system, or other source.

B. "Automated license plate recognition system" or "ALPR system" means one or more cameras, sensors, devices, software systems, databases, computer algorithms, artificial intelligence systems, machine-learning systems, optical-character-recognition systems, or related technologies used to convert images of license plates or vehicle characteristics into computer-readable, searchable, linkable, matchable, indexable, or analyzable data. This definition is intended to read together with the definition in section 3, chapter 77, Oregon Laws 2026 (Enrolled Senate Bill 1516).

C. "Automated license plate recognition system" does not include:

1. A photo red light camera described in ORS 810.434 when used only for enforcement of ORS 811.265;

2. A photo radar unit when used only for enforcement of ORS 811.111;

3. An ordinary security camera, doorbell camera, dashboard camera, mobile phone camera, news camera, body camera, or other camera that does not perform automated license plate recognition and does not convert license plate images or vehicle characteristics into searchable, machine-readable plate or vehicle-location data;

4. Manual photography or video recording, including journalism, public observation, documentation of public officials, documentation of public events, documentation of unlawful conduct, or documentation of matters of public concern;

5. A camera or system used solely for secured-area access control or parking-facility management in compliance with Section 8 of this chapter.

D. "Captured license plate data" means any license plate number, partial license plate number, vehicle image, vehicle characteristic, vehicle location, global positioning system coordinate, date, time, travel direction, lane position, device location, photograph, video, metadata, search log, alert information, associated image, derived data, inferred data, linked data, or related data collected, generated, inferred, derived, retained, searched, accessed, disclosed, transferred, or used by an ALPR system. This definition is intended to read together with the definition in section 3, chapter 77, Oregon Laws 2026 (Enrolled Senate Bill 1516).

E. "City" means the City of Albany, Oregon, and any City department, office, board, commission, employee, officer, contractor, subcontractor, volunteer, agent, or person acting for or on behalf of the City.

F. "City agency" means any department, office, board, commission, employee, officer, contractor, subcontractor, agent, or person acting for or on behalf of the City of Albany, including the Albany Police Department.

G. "Deploy" means to install, activate, maintain, place, mount, test, operate, connect, power, contract for, enable, subscribe to, access, or otherwise make available for use.

H. "Emergency access" means a temporary, narrowly tailored request for captured license plate data made only to address an imminent threat of death, serious physical injury, kidnapping, or a missing endangered person, and only under Section 7 of this chapter.

I. "Law-enforcement agency" has the meaning given that term in ORS 181A.775.

J. "Law-enforcement purpose" means, for purposes of this chapter, any purpose related to investigation, detection, prevention, surveillance, intelligence gathering, identification, apprehension, citation, arrest, prosecution, civil enforcement, code enforcement, parking enforcement, warrant service, probation, parole, immigration enforcement, public-order monitoring, traffic-stop support, hot-list matching, or any other governmental enforcement activity.

K. "Ordinary security camera" means a camera used for real-time viewing, local recording, safety, property protection, personal security, incident documentation, or similar purposes that does not perform automated license plate recognition and does not convert license plate images or vehicle characteristics into searchable, machine-readable plate or vehicle-location data.

L. "Parking facility" means a parking lot, parking garage, or designated parking area, including its entrances and exits, that is owned or lawfully controlled by the operator of the ALPR system serving it. "Parking facility" does not include any public right-of-way.

M. "Person" means any individual, corporation, partnership, limited liability company, association, business, landlord, property owner, property manager, homeowners' association, neighborhood association, nonprofit organization, private security provider, vendor, contractor, public body, public agency, governmental entity, or other legal entity.

N. "Place open to the public" means any place, whether publicly or privately owned, to which the general public, customers, invitees, tenants, residents, patients, clients, visitors, employees, students, or members of any substantial group of the public have access, including parking lots, driveways, access roads, commercial premises, residential complexes, retail centers, parks, schools, churches, medical facilities, legal-service locations, courthouses, public buildings, and event spaces.

O. "Private ALPR system" means an ALPR system deployed, operated, maintained, owned, leased, subscribed to, accessed, or controlled by any person other than the City.

P. "Public right-of-way" means any public street, road, alley, lane, sidewalk, bicycle lane, trail, bridge, public parking area, public access area, or other public way within the City.

Q. "Request" means to seek, solicit, ask for, subscribe to, query, access, purchase, receive, accept, obtain, search, review, rely upon, or otherwise acquire, directly or indirectly. Unsolicited receipt of captured license plate data is governed by Section 5.F of this chapter rather than treated as a violation in itself.

R. "Secured area" means an area enclosed by clear physical boundaries, not open to the public, where entry is limited to specifically authorized persons through controlled access points. This definition is intended to read together with the definition in section 3, chapter 77, Oregon Laws 2026 (Enrolled Senate Bill 1516).

S. "Third-party ALPR network" means any database, platform, vendor system, subscription service, cloud service, shared network, software environment, data exchange, or other system that stores, aggregates, indexes, searches, analyzes, shares, sells, transfers, or provides access to captured license plate data from one or more ALPR systems across more than one operator, or that makes such data searchable or accessible by any person other than the operator who collected it. "Third-party ALPR network" does not include data storage, including cloud storage, controlled solely by a single operator, used solely for that operator's own data, and not shared with, searchable by, or accessible to any other person.

SECTION 4. PROHIBITION ON CITY ALPR DEPLOYMENT AND USE.

A. The City shall not operate, deploy, maintain, purchase, lease, subscribe to, contract for, test, pilot, fund, activate, reactivate, renew, extend, or use any ALPR system.

B. No City agency, employee, officer, contractor, subcontractor, agent, or person acting on behalf of the City shall operate, deploy, maintain, purchase, lease, subscribe to, contract for, test, pilot, fund, activate, reactivate, renew, extend, or use any ALPR system.

C. The City shall not enter into or remain a party to any contract, memorandum of understanding, intergovernmental agreement, data-sharing agreement, grant condition, pilot agreement, subscription, service agreement, equipment agreement, purchase order, or other arrangement that authorizes, enables, supports, funds, or permits City use of an ALPR system.

D. No City funds, personnel, property, equipment, infrastructure, network resources, rights-of-way, poles, facilities, vehicles, computers, software, accounts, credentials, or other City resources may be used to support, host, mount, power, connect, access, maintain, repair, test, or operate an ALPR system, except as necessary to terminate, remove, disable, audit, investigate, enforce, comply with, or report under this chapter.

E. This section does not prohibit lawful use of non-ALPR cameras, ordinary security cameras, body-worn cameras, dashboard cameras, traffic cameras that are not ALPR systems, photo red light cameras described in ORS 810.434 used for enforcement of ORS 811.265, photo radar units used for enforcement of ORS 811.111, emergency communications systems, or other public-safety tools that do not convert license plate images or vehicle characteristics into searchable, machine-readable license plate or vehicle-location data.

SECTION 5. PROHIBITION ON CITY ACCESS TO ALPR DATA.

A. No City agency, employee, officer, contractor, subcontractor, agent, or person acting on behalf of the City shall request, receive, purchase, access, search, query, view, analyze, copy, download, retain, share, disclose, rely upon, or otherwise use captured license plate data collected by any ALPR system, except as expressly allowed under Sections 6 or 7 of this chapter.

B. The prohibition in subsection A applies regardless of whether the captured license plate data was collected by:

1. The City;

2. Another law-enforcement agency;

3. A federal agency;

4. A state agency;

5. A county agency;

6. A public university, public school, or public body;

7. A private person;

8. A business;

9. A landlord or property manager;

10. A homeowners' association;

11. A private security provider;

12. A vendor;

13. A third-party ALPR network.

C. No City agency, employee, officer, contractor, subcontractor, agent, or person acting on behalf of the City shall use another agency, vendor, person, database, contractor, private entity, or third-party network to do indirectly what this chapter prohibits the City from doing directly.

D. No City agency, employee, officer, contractor, subcontractor, agent, or person acting on behalf of the City shall ask, direct, invite, encourage, reimburse, compensate, or cause another agency, vendor, person, or entity to search, query, access, analyze, or provide ALPR data on the City's behalf, except as expressly allowed under Sections 6 or 7 of this chapter.

E. Captured license plate data obtained in violation of this chapter shall not be used by the City for any City enforcement action, administrative action, civil infraction, code enforcement action, parking enforcement action, investigation, citation, stop, search, seizure, arrest, prosecution referral, licensing decision, permit decision, or adverse governmental action, except to the extent a court of competent jurisdiction orders otherwise or controlling law requires otherwise.

F. If a City agency receives captured license plate data it did not request, the receiving employee or officer shall document the receipt, shall not search, distribute, or rely upon the data except as allowed under Sections 6 or 7, and shall ensure the data is deleted within thirty days unless retention is required by court order, controlling law, or the data was lawfully received as evidence under Section 6.F. Each unsolicited receipt shall be included in the quarterly report under Section 6.E. Good-faith compliance with this subsection is not a violation of this chapter.

SECTION 6. COURT-PROCESS AND VOLUNTARY INCIDENT-REPORT EXCEPTIONS.

A. The City may request or receive captured license plate data only when required or authorized by:

1. A judicial warrant;

2. A judicial subpoena;

3. A court order;

4. Another compulsory court-issued legal process;

5. A provision of controlling state or federal law that requires the City to receive the data.

B. Any request under this section must be limited to the minimum information necessary to comply with the legal process.

C. Any request under this section must be documented in writing and must include:

1. The legal process authorizing the request;

2. The requesting City employee or officer;

3. The date and time of the request;

4. The case number or reference number;

5. The legal basis for the request;

6. The scope of data requested;

7. The source from which data is requested;

8. The data received, if any;

9. The retention and deletion schedule for any data received.

D. The City Attorney shall review requests made under this section unless emergency timing makes prior review impossible.

E. The City shall publish a redacted quarterly report of all requests and receipts under this section, including voluntary incident reports under subsection F and unsolicited receipts under Section 5.F. The report shall remove personal identifiers, license plate numbers, vehicle characteristics tied to identifiable persons, confidential investigative information, and any information that controlling law prohibits disclosing.

F. A City law-enforcement officer may receive captured license plate data voluntarily provided by a victim of, or witness to, a specific incident reasonably believed to involve a crime, if all of the following conditions are satisfied:

1. The data is directly related to that specific incident;

2. The data is provided on the provider's own initiative, or in response to a City request that is limited to that specific incident and does not seek bulk, ongoing, or subscription access;

3. The data is limited to the vehicles, plates, locations, and time period reasonably connected to the incident;

4. The receipt is documented with the information described in subsection C, adapted to the circumstances;

5. The data is retained and destroyed in accordance with the rules governing evidence in the matter, and is not added to any hot list, watch list, or searchable database except as evidence in that matter;

6. The receipt is included in the quarterly report under subsection E.

G. Nothing in this section authorizes the City to obtain a subscription, ongoing feed, dashboard, search portal, or standing access to any ALPR system or third-party ALPR network.

SECTION 7. EMERGENCY PUBLIC-SAFETY EXCEPTION.

A. The City may not invoke a generalized public-safety rationale to avoid this chapter.

B. In an emergency involving an imminent threat of death, serious physical injury, kidnapping, or a missing endangered person, including a person who is the subject of an Amber Alert or Silver Alert, a City law-enforcement officer may request captured license plate data only if all of the following conditions are satisfied:

1. The request is reasonably necessary to address the imminent emergency;

2. No reasonable non-ALPR alternative is available in time to address the emergency;

3. The request is limited to the narrowest geographic area, time period, vehicle description, plate description, and data set reasonably necessary;

4. The request is approved in writing by the Chief of Police or acting Chief of Police before the request is made, unless delay would create an imminent risk of death or serious physical injury;

5. The request is not made for immigration enforcement, political monitoring, protest monitoring, public-comment monitoring, association tracking, generalized patrol, routine warrant searches, routine traffic enforcement, debt collection, civil code enforcement, parking enforcement, or non-emergency investigation;

6. The request is documented in a written emergency-use report within twenty-four hours;

7. The City Attorney receives the emergency-use report within forty-eight hours;

8. The City Council receives a redacted public report at the next regular Council meeting or within fourteen days, whichever occurs first.

C. An emergency-use report must include:

1. The facts establishing the emergency;

2. Why non-ALPR alternatives were insufficient;

3. Who approved the request;

4. Who made the request;

5. What data was requested;

6. What data was received;

7. What source supplied the data;

8. Whether the data was used;

9. Whether the data was retained or deleted;

10. The date by which deletion will occur unless a court orders otherwise.

D. Nothing in this section authorizes the City to operate, deploy, maintain, contract for, or subscribe to an ALPR system.

E. The emergency exception shall be construed narrowly.

SECTION 8. LIMITED SECURED-AREA AND PARKING-FACILITY EXCEPTIONS.

A. Secured-area access control. A person may use a non-networked ALPR access-control system solely to control entry into a secured area only if all of the following conditions are satisfied:

1. The secured area is enclosed by clear physical boundaries;

2. The secured area is not open to the public;

3. Entry is limited to specifically authorized persons through controlled access points;

4. The ALPR system is used only to confirm authorization for entry into that secured area;

5. The ALPR system is positioned and configured so that it does not capture public rights-of-way, public streets, public sidewalks, public parking areas, or places open to the public, and any incidental capture is automatically deleted and never made searchable;

6. The ALPR system is not connected to a third-party ALPR network;

7. Captured license plate data is not sold, shared, disclosed, transferred, licensed, provided to, or made available to any law-enforcement agency, governmental entity, vendor, third-party network, or unrelated third party, except as allowed under Section 9.F or by compulsory court-issued process;

8. Captured license plate data is automatically deleted within seventy-two hours unless directly related to a specific documented unauthorized-access or criminal incident within that secured area, in which case it may be retained only as long as reasonably necessary for that incident;

9. Notice is posted at the secured-area access point stating that ALPR access control is in use;

10. The operator maintains a written policy describing the system, data retention, deletion, access controls, and complaint contact.

B. Parking-facility management. A person may use a non-networked ALPR system solely to manage a parking facility the person owns or lawfully controls only if all of the following conditions are satisfied:

1. The system is used only for parking management purposes: controlling entry and exit, administering payment and permits, enforcing time limits, and resolving billing disputes for that parking facility;

2. Cameras are positioned and configured to capture only the parking facility and its entrances and exits, minimizing capture of any public right-of-way, and any incidental capture of public-right-of-way traffic is automatically deleted and never made searchable;

3. The system is not connected to a third-party ALPR network;

4. Captured license plate data is not sold, shared, disclosed, transferred, licensed, or made available to any person, except to the registered owner or lawful operator of a vehicle concerning that person's own vehicle, as allowed under Section 9.F, or by compulsory court-issued process;

5. Captured license plate data is automatically deleted within thirty days unless directly related to a specific documented billing dispute, unauthorized-use incident, or criminal incident at that parking facility, in which case it may be retained only as long as reasonably necessary for that matter;

6. Notice is posted at the parking-facility entrances stating that ALPR parking management is in use;

7. The operator maintains a written policy describing the system, data retention, deletion, access controls, and complaint contact;

8. Captured license plate data is not used to track, profile, or analyze the movement of any vehicle or person beyond the parking facility itself.

C. A person relying on an exception under this section bears the burden of demonstrating compliance.

D. No exception under this section authorizes any ALPR system that captures public-facing vehicle movement for any other purpose or contributes to a searchable public-movement database.

SECTION 9. REGULATION OF PRIVATE ALPR SYSTEMS WITHIN CITY LIMITS.

A. Except as allowed under Section 8, no person shall knowingly operate, deploy, maintain, install, test, pilot, activate, reactivate, subscribe to, contract for, or use an ALPR system within the City of Albany when the ALPR system is positioned or configured to capture license plate data from:

1. A public right-of-way;

2. A public street;

3. A public sidewalk;

4. A public parking area;

5. A public building or public facility;

6. A park, trail, plaza, transit stop, or other public space;

7. A place open to the public that the person does not own or lawfully control;

8. Vehicles entering, exiting, passing, approaching, or parked in any of the above.

B. No person shall operate, deploy, maintain, install, test, pilot, activate, reactivate, subscribe to, contract for, or use a private ALPR system within the City of Albany if captured license plate data is uploaded to, stored in, searched through, shared with, sold to, disclosed to, or otherwise made available through a third-party ALPR network.

C. No person shall sell, share, disclose, provide, transfer, license, exchange, publish, make available, or grant access to captured license plate data collected within the City of Albany to:

1. The City;

2. Any law-enforcement agency;

3. Any federal agency;

4. Any out-of-state governmental agency;

5. Any vendor;

6. Any third-party ALPR network;

7. Any other person.

D. Subsection C does not prohibit:

1. Providing the registered owner or lawful operator of a vehicle with captured license plate data concerning that person's own vehicle;

2. A voluntary incident report under subsection F;

3. Disclosure required by a judicial warrant, judicial subpoena, court order, or other compulsory court-issued legal process;

4. Disclosure that controlling state or federal law requires.

E. No person shall knowingly place, angle, configure, calibrate, mount, operate, or use any camera, device, system, account, or database for the purpose of evading this chapter while still capturing license plate data from public rights-of-way or places open to the public.

F. Voluntary incident reports. A person lawfully operating a system under Section 8 who reasonably believes that a specific incident involving a crime has occurred on or against premises, persons, or property the person owns or controls may voluntarily provide to a law-enforcement agency captured license plate data directly related to that specific incident, limited to the vehicles, plates, and time period reasonably connected to the incident. A disclosure that complies with this subsection is not a violation of this chapter. This subsection does not authorize bulk, ongoing, subscription, or standing access by any law-enforcement agency.

G. Each ALPR camera, sensor, device, account, database, search, disclosure, day of operation, and day of noncompliance constitutes a separate violation, subject to the proportionality requirements of Section 14.

SECTION 10. FAIR NOTICE, CURE, AND COMPLIANCE WINDOWS FOR PRIVATE OPERATORS.

A. Education first. Except where immediate action is necessary to prevent continuing unlawful data collection, disclosure, sale, sharing, or public harm, the City shall provide written notice and an opportunity to cure before imposing civil penalties on a private operator, and the first notice to an operator who has not previously violated this chapter shall be a warning that carries no penalty if the violation is cured within the cure period.

B. A notice of violation shall identify:

1. The alleged violation;

2. The factual basis for the allegation;

3. The ordinance provision involved;

4. The action required to cure;

5. The deadline to cure;

6. The right to submit evidence, explanation, or objection;

7. The right to request a hearing under Section 14.D.

C. The cure period shall be not less than ten calendar days unless the City Manager or designee determines that a shorter period is necessary because of continuing data collection, disclosure, sale, sharing, or public harm.

D. A private operator may cure by:

1. Disabling ALPR functionality;

2. Repositioning or reconfiguring equipment so it cannot capture public-right-of-way or public-facing vehicle movement;

3. Disconnecting from third-party ALPR networks;

4. Bringing the system into compliance with an exception under Section 8;

5. Deleting captured license plate data collected in violation of this chapter;

6. Certifying compliance in writing;

7. Providing reasonable documentation sufficient to verify compliance.

E. Nothing in this section prevents immediate injunctive relief where necessary to stop ongoing unlawful data collection, disclosure, sale, or sharing.

F. Compliance window for existing systems. A person operating a private ALPR system lawfully installed before the effective date of this ordinance shall have ninety days from the effective date to comply with Sections 8 and 9.A, and thirty days from the effective date to comply with Sections 9.B and 9.C. No penalty shall be imposed during the applicable window on an operator who is diligently working toward compliance, and the City shall make reasonable efforts to inform known operators of this chapter's requirements during the window.

SECTION 11. EXISTING CITY CONTRACTS, DEVICES, DATA, AND ACCOUNTS.

A. Within five business days after the effective date of this ordinance, the City Manager shall identify every City contract, subscription, account, memorandum of understanding, grant, pilot, test, demonstration, purchase order, invoice, access credential, device, camera, installation, data-sharing arrangement, or other arrangement involving an ALPR system or captured license plate data.

B. Within ten business days after the effective date of this ordinance, the City shall terminate, disable, suspend, or otherwise cease all City access to any ALPR system or captured license plate data, except as necessary to complete deletion, preservation, audit, enforcement, or compliance obligations under this chapter.

C. Within fifteen business days after the effective date of this ordinance, the City shall request written certification from any vendor, contractor, agency, or person that possessed or controlled captured license plate data collected for, by, or on behalf of the City that:

1. All such data has been permanently deleted;

2. All copies, backups, cached data, derived data, metadata, search logs, exports, reports, alerts, and analytics have been permanently deleted unless retention is required by court order or controlling law;

3. No such data was sold, shared, transferred, disclosed, licensed, accessed, searched, or used except as specifically disclosed;

4. No federal agency, out-of-state agency, private person, or third-party vendor received unrestricted or ongoing access to such data;

5. Any data retained due to compulsory legal process or controlling law is specifically identified, segregated, and subject to written retention and deletion controls.

D. Within thirty days after the effective date of this ordinance, the City Manager shall provide a public written report to the City Council identifying:

1. All known ALPR contracts, subscriptions, tests, pilots, accounts, devices, or access arrangements involving the City;

2. The termination or deactivation status of each;

3. Whether any captured license plate data was collected;

4. Whether any captured license plate data was accessed, searched, shared, disclosed, transferred, sold, or retained;

5. Whether deletion certification has been obtained;

6. Any gaps, refusals, exceptions, or pending issues.

SECTION 12. PUBLIC RECORDS, AUDITS, AND TRANSPARENCY.

A. The City shall maintain a public ALPR transparency page on the City website.

B. The transparency page shall include:

1. This chapter;

2. Any City policy, memorandum, legal opinion, staff report, audit, or public report concerning ALPR systems, except material lawfully exempt from disclosure;

3. Any emergency-use reports required under this chapter, redacted only as required by law;

4. Any court-process and incident-report quarterly reports required under this chapter, redacted only as required by law;

5. Any deletion certifications obtained under this chapter;

6. Any enforcement reports issued under this chapter;

7. The annual report required under Section 16;

8. A public complaint form for reporting suspected violations.

C. If the City receives or possesses any ALPR audit information, access log, search log, vendor report, deletion certificate, or data-sharing record, the City shall publish the record within two business days unless disclosure is prohibited by law. Before publication, the City may redact personally identifiable information, license plate numbers, vehicle characteristics tied to identifiable persons, confidential investigative information, and security-sensitive information to the extent required or permitted by law, consistent with the redaction approach of ORS 192.345 (44).

D. Nothing in this chapter limits any right of access, disclosure, or discovery guaranteed by the Oregon Constitution, the United States Constitution, Oregon Public Records Law, criminal discovery statutes, civil discovery rules, court order, or other controlling law.

SECTION 13. COMPLAINT PROCEDURE.

A. Any person may submit a written complaint to the City alleging a violation of this chapter.

B. A complaint may be submitted through the City's website, by email, by mail, or in person.

C. The City shall acknowledge receipt of the complaint within five business days.

D. The City shall provide a written response within thirty calendar days unless additional time is reasonably necessary, in which case the City shall provide a written explanation of the need for additional time.

E. The City shall maintain a public log of complaints and dispositions, redacted as required by law.

F. The complaint procedure is not the exclusive means of enforcement and does not limit the City's authority to investigate or enforce this chapter.

SECTION 14. ENFORCEMENT, HEARINGS, AND PROPORTIONALITY.

A. The City Manager or designee may investigate alleged violations of this chapter.

B. The City Manager or designee may issue a written notice of violation requiring a person to cease operation, remove, reposition, reconfigure, or disable an ALPR system, delete captured license plate data, provide records necessary to determine compliance, and certify compliance in writing.

C. Unless immediate action is necessary to prevent continuing unlawful data collection, disclosure, sale, sharing, or public harm, a person receiving a notice of violation shall have not less than ten calendar days to cure the violation as provided in Section 10.

D. Hearing rights. A person who receives a notice of violation or a civil penalty may request a hearing before an impartial hearings officer by submitting a written request within ten calendar days of the notice or penalty. The hearings officer shall not be the person who issued the notice or penalty. The person may appear, be represented, present evidence, and respond to the City's evidence. The hearings officer shall issue a written decision stating findings and reasons. Penalties are stayed while a timely requested hearing is pending. The decision of the hearings officer is subject to review by writ of review under ORS 34.010 to 34.100.

E. Civil penalties. If a violation is not cured within the time allowed, the City may impose a civil penalty of not less than $100 and not more than $2,500 per violation per day. A violation involving the sale or sharing of captured license plate data, or connection of a system to a third-party ALPR network, may instead be penalized by up to $10,000 per violation.

F. Proportionality factors. In setting any penalty, the City and any hearings officer shall consider:

1. The operator's good faith and whether the violation is a first violation;

2. The promptness and completeness of any cure;

3. Whether the violation was knowing, reckless, or inadvertent;

4. Whether captured license plate data was sold, shared, or disclosed, and to whom;

5. The volume and sensitivity of data involved;

6. The size and sophistication of the operator;

7. The operator's cooperation with the investigation;

8. Any harm to identifiable persons.

G. Each camera, device, system, account, database, disclosure, transfer, sale, search, access event, and day of continued noncompliance may be treated as a separate violation, subject to the proportionality factors in subsection F.

H. The City may bring a civil action for injunctive relief, declaratory relief, civil penalties, abatement, costs, and any other relief authorized by law to enforce this chapter.

I. The City may recover reasonable costs and attorney fees to the extent authorized by law.

J. Violation of this chapter is a civil violation and shall not be punishable as a criminal offense.

K. No enforcement action under this chapter shall be based on the content of speech, opinion, journalism, expressive activity, or lawful recording that does not use an ALPR system.

L. Good-faith safe harbor. No penalty shall be imposed for conduct undertaken in reasonable reliance on a written compliance determination issued by the City Manager or designee, until the City provides written notice that the determination is withdrawn or modified and a reasonable period to adjust.

SECTION 15. NONRETALIATION.

No person shall intimidate, threaten, retaliate against, interfere with, or discriminate against any person for:

A. Opposing an ALPR system;

B. Filing a complaint under this chapter;

C. Requesting public records concerning an ALPR system;

D. Participating in a City meeting concerning an ALPR system;

E. Providing testimony, evidence, or information concerning an ALPR system;

F. Exercising rights protected by this chapter, the Oregon Constitution, the United States Constitution, or Oregon law.

SECTION 16. ANNUAL REVIEW.

A. The City Manager shall provide an annual public report to the City Council regarding implementation of this chapter.

B. The annual report shall include:

1. Complaints received;

2. Enforcement actions taken, warnings issued, hearings held, and penalties imposed;

3. Emergency requests made;

4. Court-process requests and voluntary incident reports received;

5. Known compliance issues;

6. Any proposed amendments;

7. Any changes in Oregon law, federal law, or relevant court decisions, including any development concerning sections 3 to 9, chapter 77, Oregon Laws 2026 (Enrolled Senate Bill 1516);

8. Any known ALPR technology, vendor, cybersecurity, or data-sharing developments relevant to Albany.

C. The City Council shall hold a public meeting to receive the annual report and public comment.

D. No later than five years after the effective date of this ordinance, and every five years thereafter, the City Council shall conduct a comprehensive public review of this chapter, with a public hearing, considering its effectiveness, fairness, technological change, legal developments, and any recommended amendments.

SECTION 17. CONSTRUCTION AND RELATIONSHIP TO STATE LAW.

A. This chapter shall be liberally construed to protect privacy, civil liberties, public trust, constitutional rights, and local democratic accountability.

B. This chapter shall not be construed to prohibit conduct that controlling state or federal law requires the City to allow.

C. This chapter shall not be construed to regulate ordinary photography, journalism, expressive activity, or recording that does not use an ALPR system.

D. This chapter regulates automated surveillance infrastructure, machine-readable license plate extraction, location-data retention, database searchability, data sharing, and governmental use of captured license plate data.

E. This chapter does not confiscate private property. It regulates the operation, configuration, use, and data practices of ALPR systems within the City.

F. This chapter does not create a private right to interfere with, damage, disable, remove, or access any camera, device, system, property, or account.

G. This chapter supplements, and does not reduce any duty imposed by, sections 3 to 9, chapter 77, Oregon Laws 2026 (Enrolled Senate Bill 1516). If any City use of an ALPR system or captured license plate data ever becomes lawful under this chapter, that use shall comply with both that law and every applicable provision of this chapter.

H. This chapter governs the City of Albany and persons acting within the City. It does not purport to regulate the independent operations of state or federal agencies, but no City resource, property, pole, facility, network, or right-of-way may be used to host or support an ALPR system except as provided in Section 4.

I. If any ambiguity exists, this chapter shall be interpreted to avoid preemption, avoid conflict with state or federal law, avoid unconstitutional applications, preserve the maximum lawful restriction on ALPR systems, and preserve the maximum lawful protection for residents and visitors.

SECTION 18. SEVERABILITY AND FALLBACK PROVISIONS.

A. The sections, subsections, paragraphs, sentences, clauses, phrases, words, and applications of this chapter are severable.

B. If any court of competent jurisdiction holds that any part of this chapter is invalid, preempted, unconstitutional, or unenforceable, the remaining parts shall remain in full force and effect.

C. If the prohibition on private ALPR systems is held invalid in any application, the prohibitions on City ALPR systems, City access to ALPR data, City reliance on private ALPR data, City funding, City contracting, City data-sharing, City outsourcing, City indirect use, and City emergency-use reporting shall remain in full force and effect.

D. If a court holds that the City may not fully prohibit private ALPR systems that capture public-right-of-way or public-facing traffic, then Section 9 shall be construed, to the maximum extent permitted by law, as requiring such systems to:

1. Register with the City;

2. Publicly disclose fixed camera locations;

3. Post visible notice where ALPR systems are used;

4. Limit retention to no more than thirty days, consistent with the retention floor in section 4, chapter 77, Oregon Laws 2026 (Enrolled Senate Bill 1516), unless longer retention is required by court order or directly related to a specific documented incident on the operator's premises;

5. Prohibit sale, sharing, disclosure, transfer, licensing, or third-party network access;

6. Prohibit law-enforcement access except by judicial warrant, court order, judicial subpoena, emergency access under Section 7, or a voluntary incident report under Section 9.F;

7. Maintain searchable access logs;

8. Provide deletion certification upon request;

9. Submit to reasonable City compliance review;

10. Comply with all other lawful portions of this chapter.

E. If any exception is held invalid, the prohibitions in this chapter shall remain in full force and effect to the maximum extent permitted by law.

F. The City Council declares that it would have adopted each section, subsection, paragraph, sentence, clause, phrase, word, application, and fallback provision independently.

SECTION 19. CODIFICATION.

The City Recorder is directed to codify this ordinance as a new chapter of the Albany Municipal Code and to correct numbering, formatting, internal references, and clerical errors consistent with the intent of the City Council.

SECTION 20. EFFECTIVE DATE.

A. This ordinance takes effect thirty days after adoption.

B. Notwithstanding subsection A, Sections 4, 5, 11, and 12 shall take effect immediately upon adoption to the extent permitted by the Albany Charter and controlling law, because continued City use of ALPR systems or captured license plate data would undermine the public trust, privacy, and constitutional interests this ordinance is intended to protect.

C. Notwithstanding subsection A, for private ALPR systems lawfully installed before adoption, Sections 8 and 9.A apply ninety days after the effective date and Sections 9.B and 9.C apply thirty days after the effective date, as provided in Section 10.F.

PASSED BY THE COUNCIL this ____ day of ____________, 2026.

APPROVED BY THE MAYOR this ____ day of ____________, 2026.

________________________________ Mayor

ATTEST:

________________________________ City Recorder