Massachusetts court orders state police to disclose surveillance camera locations

A Massachusetts superior court judge has ruled that the state police must disclose the locations of its automatic license plate reader (ALPR) technology to the public. The decision concludes a three-year legal battle initiated by the ACLU of Massachusetts in 2023, which challenged the state's refusal to release records regarding the deployment of these cameras and the use of collected data.

The ruling comes amid growing national scrutiny of surveillance networks, particularly those utilizing Flock cameras and artificial intelligence. Privacy advocates have expressed concern over the scale of data collection, noting that the state holds an estimated 290 million records used to monitor vehicle activity. The court determined that the state police could not justify withholding this information, ordering an immediate release of the records.