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License-plate readers · Suffolk County

Suffolk County

Using license-plate readers · 2 agencies documented

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Boston Police Department

Status
Using license-plate readers
Vendors
Motorola Solutions, Axon, Flock Safety
Cameras
75
About 45 Motorola cameras (trial began February 2026) plus about 30 Axon cameras (trial began on or around June 1, 2026), per the city's 2025 annual surveillance report. The earlier Flock trial (about 45 cameras, April 1 to Sept. 4, 2025) ended and its equipment was removed. Legacy 3M cameras are described as not operable.
Contract
Flock Safety: term · from April 1, 2025 · to Sept. 4, 2025 · approved by Boston Police Department (Special Order 25-16) · Short-term trial; city reports BPD had no ALPR expenditures in FY2025. Contract barred data sharing. (City of Boston, Sept. 15, 2026; Boston.com, Sept. 15, 2026)
Contract
Motorola Solutions: term · from Feb. 2026 · approved by Boston Police Department (Special Order 26-03) · Short-term trial of about 45 cameras; no amount disclosed. The Globe reported a January 2026 start. (City of Boston, Sept. 15, 2026; The Boston Globe, Aug. 27, 2026)
Contract
Axon: term · from June 1, 2026 · approved by Boston Police Department · Short-term trial of about 30 cameras beginning on or around June 1, 2026; no amount disclosed. (City of Boston, Sept. 15, 2026)
  1. 2013 Boston police suspended their license plate readers indefinitely after more than 68,000 plate numbers were inadvertently released to The Boston Globe, according to MassLive. (MassLive (via Government Technology), Oct. 17, 2023)
  2. Oct. 2016 BPD set up an ALPR system by police special order using 3M cameras; police now describe those legacy cameras as defunct. (MassLive (via Government Technology / Tribune Content Agency), Sept. 18, 2026)
  3. 2022 The mayor's office says the City Council approved plate-reader use in 2022 under the city's surveillance ordinance; that approval did not specify vendors or devices. (The Boston Globe, Aug. 27, 2026)
  4. 2025 During the Flock trial BPD received 15 requests to add plates to the hot list (13 from BPD, 2 from State Police); 12 were approved and 3 denied. Internal Affairs reported 0 complaints of ALPR misuse in 2025, and the Audit and Review Unit audited the trial. (City of Boston, Sept. 15, 2026)
  5. April 2025 Within three days of the Flock trial starting, BPD found that outside agencies could reach Boston's plate data through a nationwide lookup feature the vendor had enabled in error; BPD had the feature turned off and limited outside access to written requests. (City of Boston, Sept. 15, 2026; Boston.com, Sept. 15, 2026)
  6. April 1, 2025 BPD began a short-term Flock trial with about 45 cameras under contract terms that disabled data sharing. (City of Boston, Sept. 15, 2026)
  7. Sept. 4, 2025 The Flock trial ended. Flock later removed the trial cameras and equipment, and city and police officials said they will not use Flock going forward. (City of Boston, Sept. 15, 2026; Boston.com, Sept. 15, 2026)
  8. Feb. 2026 BPD began a short-term trial of about 45 Motorola plate-reader cameras under Special Order 26-03, with 30-day retention unless held for legal or investigative purposes. (City of Boston, Sept. 15, 2026)
  9. June 1, 2026 BPD scheduled a short-term trial of about 30 Axon plate-reader cameras to begin on or around this date. (City of Boston, Sept. 15, 2026)
  10. Aug. 2026 The Globe reported that BPD special orders require a stated reason and case number for each search except in emergencies, and route outside agencies' requests through the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, which can deny them. City officials said no new council approval was needed because the department was only changing vendors. (The Boston Globe, Aug. 27, 2026; The Boston Globe, Sept. 22, 2026)
  11. Sept. 23, 2026 Councilors Benjamin Weber, Gabriela Coletta Zapata and Henry Santana filed Docket #1796 to amend the surveillance ordinance, requiring notice to the council within 30 days of new vendor agreements for approved technology and annual ALPR reporting on vendors, camera counts and locations, and reads and hot-list hits per camera. It was referred to the Committee on Government Operations. (Boston City Council, Sept. 23, 2026; NBC Boston, Sept. 23, 2026; Boston 25 News, Sept. 23, 2026)
  12. Nov. 10, 2026 A joint hearing of the council's Public Safety and Criminal Justice and Government Operations committees is scheduled on the 2025 annual surveillance report (Docket #1708) and Docket #1796. (Boston City Council, Oct. 1, 2026)
Conflicts and open questions
  • Camera total (75) adds the approximate Motorola (45) and Axon (30) counts in the 2025 annual surveillance report; the report and press do not say whether either trial has ended.
  • Motorola start: the city report says February 2026; the Globe says January 2026; Boston.com says the trial was agreed to in 2025 and began in February, without stating the year.
  • Date '2022' and '2013' are year-only. '2025-04' event: source says within three days of April 1, 2025.
  • A City Council hearing is scheduled for Nov. 10, 2026.

From agency records.

Revere Police Department

Status
Using license-plate readers
Vendors
Flock Safety
Cameras
15
15 cameras as reported by MassLive in October 2023, two paid for by a private company; no current count found.
  1. Oct. 2023 MassLive reported Revere had 15 plate-reader cameras, two paid for by a private company, and the highest spending among the communities that disclosed costs; police declined to say where the cameras are. (MassLive (via Government Technology), Oct. 17, 2023)
  2. Sept. 2026 Revere police said they are keeping their Flock cameras, have added audit features and software to flag unusual searches, and adopted an ALPR-specific policy. (Boston.com, Sept. 3, 2026)
Conflicts and open questions
  • No contract terms, cost, or council approval found.

Reported by news outlets; agency records not yet obtained.

Statewide

  1. Jan. 14, 2015 Sen. Cynthia Creem filed S.1817 in the 2015-2016 session to regulate automatic license plate reader systems, including a 14-day deletion requirement and annual reporting; it was referred to the Transportation committee. A similar bill (S.1648) had been filed in 2013-2014. (Massachusetts Legislature, Jan. 14, 2015)
  2. Jan. 14, 2025 Rep. Steven Owens (D-Watertown) filed H.3755, "An Act establishing driver privacy protections," with Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa added on Jan. 21, 2025. The bill would create a new Chapter 90K limiting government ALPR use: 14-day retention unless tied to a specific criminal investigation, a warrant to reach other entities' ALPR data, no sharing except in judicial proceedings, and no use to track constitutionally protected activity. (Legiplex (Massachusetts Legislature bill record), Feb. 27, 2025; NBC Boston / State House News Service, Sept. 9, 2026)
  3. Oct. 7, 2025 The ACLU of Massachusetts published network audits and contract records it obtained through public records requests to nearly 80 police departments, reporting that Massachusetts police spent over $2 million on Flock technology over three years and that out-of-state agencies searched data from Massachusetts departments. An update on Feb. 26, 2026 said more than 80 Massachusetts police departments have Flock contracts. (ACLU of Massachusetts, Data for Justice Project, Oct. 7, 2025)
  4. Jan. 2026 The ACLU of Massachusetts sent a letter to municipal leaders whose police use Flock or another plate-reader vendor, asking them within 30 days to confirm their vendor, obtain settings and contract terms, disable sharing outside Massachusetts, and end contracts where outside sharing cannot be stopped. (ACLU of Massachusetts, Jan. 1, 2026)
  5. March 2026 The Joint Committee on Transportation endorsed H.3755 on an 11-0 vote, after which the bill went to House Ways and Means, where it remained as of September 2026. Its sponsor said he expects to refile a revised version next session. (NBC Boston / State House News Service, Sept. 9, 2026; The New Bedford Light / State House News Service, Sept. 10, 2026)
  6. Sept. 2026 Gov. Maura Healey's office referred questions on plate readers to the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, whose spokesperson said the office supports appropriate safeguards and will keep monitoring the issue; no executive action was described. A six-member conference committee was working on data privacy legislation (S.2619 / H.5479), which the H.3755 sponsor said may affect ALPR data. (The New Bedford Light / State House News Service, Sept. 10, 2026; NBC Boston / State House News Service, Sept. 9, 2026)
  7. Sept. 2026 The ACLU of Massachusetts said 25 Massachusetts municipalities had canceled Flock contracts or ended pilots over the preceding 18 months. (NBC Boston / State House News Service, Sept. 9, 2026)
  8. Sept. 16, 2026 Rep. Adam Scanlon (D-Bristol) said he plans to file legislation with Rep. Marcus Vaughn setting statewide standards for plate readers, covering data retention, access rules, and auditing. No bill number was given. (Boston 25 News, Sept. 16, 2026)

State agencies

Massachusetts State Police

Status
Using license-plate readers
Vendors
Motorola Solutions
Cameras
Count not documented
No count disclosed.
  1. 2020 In 2020, State Police stopped using a plate-reader surveillance system after finding that a glitch had been recording inaccurate data for more than five years, according to MassLive's 2023 reporting. In that same reporting, a State Police spokesperson named Neology as a technology company the agency uses. (MassLive (via Government Technology), Oct. 17, 2023)
  2. 2025 During Boston's 2025 Flock trial, the State Police submitted 2 of the 15 requests to add plates to the Boston system's hot list. (City of Boston, Sept. 15, 2026)
  3. Oct. 7, 2025 The ACLU of Massachusetts reported that the State Police have contracts with Vigilant Solutions, a plate-reader data company. (ACLU of Massachusetts, Data for Justice Project, Oct. 7, 2025)
  4. Sept. 2026 A state public safety spokesperson told the Globe that the State Police do not use Flock Safety cameras. (The Boston Globe, Sept. 2, 2026)
  5. Sept. 4, 2026 In a statement, the State Police said fewer than 2% of members can query ALPR data, that each query requires a case number or reference, a reason, a time period and a geographic area, that users must complete privacy training, and that queries are monitored and audited. (The New Bedford Light / State House News Service, Sept. 10, 2026)
Conflicts and open questions
  • Vendor: a State Police spokesperson named Neology in 2023 reporting; in 2025 the ACLU of Massachusetts named Vigilant Solutions, a Motorola Solutions company.
  • The 2020 date is year-only; the source gives no month.

Reported by news outlets; agency records not yet obtained.