# Arkansas Automatic License Plate Reader System Act The Arkansas statute that governs who may operate automatic-license-plate-reader systems in the state, what may be done with the data they capture, how long it may be kept, and what must be reported to the public. Codified at **Ark. Code Ann. §§ 12-12-1801 – 12-12-1808** (Title 12, Subtitle 2, Chapter 12, Subchapter 18 — "Use of Automatic License Plate Reader Systems"), the Act was added in its entirety by **Act 2013, No. 1491** and, per its history line, has not been amended since. By its own § 12-12-1801, the subchapter "is known and may be cited as the 'Automatic License Plate Reader System Act'" (primary public record, [Ark. Code § 12-12-1801](../../web%20archive/2026-05-22/codes.findlaw.com/ark-code-12-12-1801.md)). The Act is the statute Conway PD invokes — together with three Arkansas FOIA exemptions and the federal Driver's Privacy Protection Act — to withhold network-sharing, federal-search, hot-list, and audit-log records in `PD-2026-477`. See [[Custodian Response Letter]] and [[2026-05 Conway PD PD-2026-477 Withholding Response]]. ## The statute, section by section - **§ 12-12-1801 — Title.** The short-title section (primary public record, [Ark. Code § 12-12-1801](../../web%20archive/2026-05-22/codes.findlaw.com/ark-code-12-12-1801.md)). - **§ 12-12-1802 — Definitions.** Defines "captured plate data" as "the global positioning device coordinates, date and time, photograph, license plate number, and any other data captured by or derived from any automatic license plate reader system," and provides that "[c]aptured plate data shall not include any personal data." Also defines "alert," "automatic license plate reader system," "governmental entity," and "secured area" (primary public record, [Ark. Code § 12-12-1802](../../web%20archive/2026-05-22/codes.findlaw.com/ark-code-12-12-1802.md)). - **§ 12-12-1803 — Restrictions on use.** Makes it unlawful to use an ALPR system except for enumerated purposes; for law enforcement, the permitted use is "comparison of captured plate data" with OMV, ACIC, NCIC, "a database created by law enforcement for the purposes of an ongoing investigation," and the FBI, "for any lawful purpose" (primary public record, [Ark. Code § 12-12-1803](../../web%20archive/2026-05-22/codes.findlaw.com/ark-code-12-12-1803.md)). - **§ 12-12-1804 — Protections.** Caps retention of captured plate data at **150 days**, provides it "shall not be used or shared for any other purpose," and — in subdivision (d)(1) — bars a governmental entity from selling, trading, or exchanging captured plate data "for any purpose." Subdivision (d)(2) permits sharing with other law-enforcement agencies only of captured plate data "that indicates evidence of an offense" (primary public record, [Ark. Code § 12-12-1804](../../web%20archive/2026-05-22/codes.findlaw.com/ark-code-12-12-1804.md)). - **§ 12-12-1805 — Practice and usage data preservation.** Requires an entity using an ALPR system to compile statistical "practice and usage data" every six months "into a format sufficient to allow the general public to review the compiled data" and to preserve it for eighteen months. The enumerated data are: plates scanned; the lists checked against; and, per list, confirmed matches, matches that did not correlate to an alert, and matches resulting in arrest and prosecution. It also requires the entity to promulgate publicly available retention rules (primary public record, [Ark. Code § 12-12-1805](../../web%20archive/2026-05-22/codes.findlaw.com/ark-code-12-12-1805.md)). - **§ 12-12-1806 — Use of data and data-derived evidence.** Excludes captured plate data and derived evidence from any proceeding if the disclosure would violate the subchapter (primary public record, [Ark. Code § 12-12-1806](../../web%20archive/2026-05-22/codes.findlaw.com/ark-code-12-12-1806.md)). - **§ 12-12-1807 — Penalties.** Creates a private right of action: an injured person may recover actual damages or $1,000 in liquidated damages, whichever is greater, plus costs (primary public record, [Ark. Code § 12-12-1807](../../web%20archive/2026-05-22/codes.findlaw.com/ark-code-12-12-1807.md)). - **§ 12-12-1808 — Privacy.** Provides that captured plate data "may be disclosed only" to the person to whom the vehicle is registered, after that person's written consent, or "[i]f the disclosure of the data is permitted by the Driver's Privacy Protection Act of 1994, 18 U.S.C. § 2721 et seq." It also states that practice-and-usage data are "a public record for purposes of the Freedom of Information Act" (primary public record, [Ark. Code § 12-12-1808](../../web%20archive/2026-05-22/law.justia.com/ark-code-12-12-1808.md)). ## How it appears in the corpus - **The semi-annual LPR reports are the Act's § 12-12-1805 "practice and usage data."** Conway PD's semi-annual License Plate Reader reports — [[LPR Report First Half 2025]] and [[LPR Report First Half 2025 (PD-2026-477 Copy)]] — record exactly the fields § 12-12-1805(b) enumerates (plates scanned, hot lists checked, hits/matches, outcomes). Conway PD treats these reports as the public-facing compiled data the Act requires. - **The PCSO § 12-12-1805 report names the statute by section.** [[Pulaski County Sheriff's Office]]'s January 1 – May 19, 2026 practice-and-usage report ([[PCSO ALPR Six-Month Practice and Usage Report]]) states on its face that it is "compiled pursuant to Arkansas Code Annotated § 12-12-1805." It reports 1,422,898 plates scanned and 2,092 alerts — released only after a FOIA filing covering the same period — and states under "Match Outcomes Detail" that PCSO "does not currently track" the arrest-and-prosecution figures § 12-12-1805 enumerates. - **The 150-day retention figure recurs.** Section 12-12-1804(a)'s 150-day ceiling on captured-plate-data retention is the same figure CPD Policy 800-32 cites as the statutory cap ([[CPD Policy 800-32 — License Plate Reader Vehicle Operations]]); the Flock contract, by contrast, sets a 30-day platform retention ([[Flock Safety Order Form]]). See [[Flock Audit Logs and Retention]]. - **The sharing provisions bear on the Conway network topology.** Section 12-12-1804(d) bars selling, trading, or exchanging captured plate data and permits law-enforcement-to-law-enforcement sharing only of data "that indicates evidence of an offense." The `PD-2026-354` production documented a 1,384-organization Flock sharing topology configured as a default-on platform state ([[SharedNetworks 2025-12-17 Snapshot]], [[Default-On Surveillance Data Sharing as Operational Model]]). The wiki records the statute and the documented practice; it does not adjudicate their relationship. ## The PD-2026-477 withholding framework In [[Custodian Response Letter]], Conway PD builds its withholdings on a public-versus-non-public distinction drawn from this Act, combined with three Arkansas FOIA exemptions and the federal DPPA: - **The Act.** The Department treats the compiled § 12-12-1805 practice-and-usage data as public, and treats "individual Flock Safety platform records" — search logs, query records, audit logs, network-sharing exports, hot-list records — as "captured plate data" or data "derived from" an ALPR system within § 12-12-1802, disclosure of which is restricted by § 12-12-1808. - **Arkansas FOIA § 25-19-105.** The Department cites three exemptions: **(b)(6)** (undisclosed law-enforcement investigations of suspected criminal activity), **(b)(11)** (computer-system and network security measures and access controls), and **(b)(13)** (personal contact information of nonelected employees) (primary public record, [Ark. Code § 25-19-105](../../web%20archive/2026-05-22/codes.findlaw.com/ark-code-25-19-105.md)). - **The Driver's Privacy Protection Act.** Section 12-12-1808's disclosure restriction carves out disclosure "permitted by the Driver's Privacy Protection Act of 1994, 18 U.S.C. § 2721 et seq." The [[DPPA (Driver's Privacy Protection Act)|DPPA]] (18 U.S.C. ch. 123, §§ 2721–2725) governs disclosure of personal information from state motor-vehicle records (primary public record, [18 U.S.C. ch. 123 — DPPA](../../web%20archive/2026-05-22/govinfo.gov/usc-18-chap123-dppa.md)). *Observation, distinct from the record:* the Act's § 12-12-1808(a)(2) and § 12-12-1805 make the compiled practice-and-usage data a public record, and the Act does not by its terms classify platform audit logs or network-sharing exports. Whether the operational records Conway PD withholds in `PD-2026-477` are "captured plate data" within § 12-12-1802, and whether the FOIA exemptions reach them, is a contested legal question; the wiki records the Department's stated position and the statutory text and does not resolve it. ## Timeline - **2013** — The Automatic License Plate Reader System Act is enacted by Act 2013, No. 1491. - **2026-05-22** — Conway PD invokes §§ 12-12-1802, 12-12-1805, and 12-12-1808 of the Act, with FOIA § 25-19-105(b)(6)/(11)/(13) and the DPPA, to withhold records in `PD-2026-477` ([[2026-05 Conway PD PD-2026-477 Withholding Response]]). - **2026-05-22** — Pulaski County Sheriff's Office releases its § 12-12-1805 six-month practice-and-usage report (the corpus's second § 12-12-1805 instance after Conway PD's semi-annual reports), with outcomes "not currently tracked" ([[PCSO ALPR Six-Month Practice and Usage Report]]). ## Application to the Arkansas State Police (ASP) — 2024-2026 The 2026-06-05 ASP production ([[_overview|`arkansas-state-police/2026-06-05-batch-1-fiscal`]]) extends the Act's coverage to the corpus's first state-LE-agency. ASP is a "governmental entity" within § 12-12-1802's definition (the statute applies to any LE-agency operator of an ALPR system); ASP's documented procurement of an [[ELSAG ALPR Systems|ELSAG]] system from [[Leonardo US Cyber and Security Solutions, LLC]] is governed by §§ 12-12-1801-1808 on the same footing as Conway PD, LRPD, and PCSO's Flock systems. The ASP procurement raises several Act-application questions specific to state-LE deployment: - **§ 12-12-1803 permitted comparisons.** The Act permits ALPR comparisons against OMV, ACIC, NCIC, "a database created by law enforcement for the purposes of an ongoing investigation," and the FBI. ASP's procurement bundles a **One Time [[HIDTA LPR Network]] License** ([[Term Contract 4600055190 and PO 4502235324 — Initial Leonardo ELSAG Buy|PO 4502235324]], p. 26). Whether the HIDTA LPR Network qualifies as one of § 12-12-1803's enumerated permissible comparisons — or whether it operates outside the statute's permitted-use list — is an open Act-application question. - **§ 12-12-1804 retention and sharing.** The Act caps retention at 150 days and restricts inter-LE-agency sharing to data "that indicates evidence of an offense." ASP's customer-controlled retention period on the ELSAG system is not yet documented in the corpus. The HIDTA LPR Network's data-flow architecture (whether it satisfies the § 12-12-1804(d)(2) "evidence of an offense" sharing rule) is structurally similar to the Flock SharedNetworks documentation question at Conway PD. - **§ 12-12-1805 practice-and-usage report.** The Act requires every 6 months a public-facing practice-and-usage report (plates scanned, lists checked, alerts, outcomes). ASP's first § 12-12-1805 obligation will come due after its first 6-month period of operation — likely the second half of 2025 if the system became operational in March 2025 per the Leonardo pick-list dates. The report is not in this batch. Future production batches (Items 2 + 3) may surface it; if not, it is a future-FOIA target. - **§ 12-12-1806 use of data and § 12-12-1807 penalties.** Standard statutory provisions; not separately addressed in this batch. - **§ 12-12-1808 disclosure.** Practice-and-usage data are public records for FOIA purposes. Whether ASP's compiled § 12-12-1805 reports have been (or will be) disclosed to FOIA requesters is a future test. ## Relationship with A.C.A. § 27-52-110 (County Automated Enforcement Devices) The [[_overview|Pulaski County `#26-365`]] production surfaces a **separate Arkansas statute** that potentially intersects with the ALPR Act: **A.C.A. § 27-52-110** (Title 27, Chapter 52, Subchapter 1) — *"Automated enforcement device operated by county government or department of state government operating outside municipality"*. The Pulaski County procurement office included a copy of § 27-52-110 in the [[Pulaski County Flock Safety MSA and Order Form (Contract 6764)|Flock contract file]] as a reference exhibit. See [[A.C.A. § 27-52-110 — County Automated Enforcement Device Statute]] for the source page. § 27-52-110 differs from the ALPR Act in three key respects: | Dimension | ALPR Act (§§ 12-12-1801–1808) | § 27-52-110 | |---|---|---| | **Subject device** | Automatic license plate reader systems | "Automated enforcement device" — specifically requiring **speeding-violation detection** plus photo recording | | **Applies to** | Any "governmental entity" using ALPR | Only county / state-department LE agencies operating **outside a municipality** | | **Retention rule** | 150-day cap on captured plate data (§ 12-12-1804(a)) | **Data not related to active investigation "shall not be retained"** by a county government (§ 27-52-110(e)) | | **Most recent amendment** | 2013 (single enactment, no amendment) | 2023 (Act 707, § 1; effective August 1, 2023) | **The threshold-application question.** Whether Flock Falcon cameras at PCSO are "automated enforcement device[s]" under § 27-52-110(a)(1) — which requires both (A) speeding-violation detection capability AND (B) photographic recording of the vehicle / operator / plate — depends on whether the cameras can or do detect speeding violations. Flock cameras photograph plates and run them against hot lists; they do not issue speeding tickets. The most natural reading is that Flock cameras do not satisfy element (A) and therefore fall outside § 27-52-110's scope, meaning the ALPR Act's 150-day cap (§ 12-12-1808) controls instead. If the statute applied, however, subsection (e)'s "no retention absent active investigation" rule would be stricter than the ALPR Act's 150-day cap and would conflict with Flock's 30-day blanket-retention practice. PCSO's contract file's inclusion of § 27-52-110 — without an accompanying internal legal-opinion document — suggests the County's procurement office considered the threshold-application question. The corpus does not contain the substantive analysis. ## Notes - The Act's text was archived 2026-05-22 as Tier-2 primary sources: §§ 12-12-1801 – 1807 from FindLaw's reproduction of the Arkansas Code (`web archive/2026-05-22/codes.findlaw.com/`) and § 12-12-1808 from Justia's reproduction (`web archive/2026-05-22/law.justia.com/`). The Arkansas General Assembly site (`arkleg.state.ar.us`) serves current code text only through a non-deep-linkable viewer; the retrievable reproductions are used, each carrying the publisher's "may not be the most recent version" disclaimer. The Act's single-enactment history line (Act 2013, No. 1491, no amendment) indicates the 2024-edition text is operative. - The companion § 27-52-110 statute was added to the corpus 2026-06-05 via the Pulaski County contract file (Westlaw printout). The corpus does not have a directly-archived Tier-2 copy of § 27-52-110 from arkleg.state.ar.us / codes.findlaw.com / govinfo.gov beyond the Westlaw reprint in the contract file. A Tier-2 archive of § 27-52-110 from a primary public-record source is an open follow-up. - This concept page concerns the statute. The technology it regulates is the subject of [[Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR)]]; the local CPD policy implementing it is [[CPD Policy 800-32 — License Plate Reader Vehicle Operations]].