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License-plate readers · Anne Arundel County

Anne Arundel County

Using license-plate readers · 3 agencies documented

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Annapolis Police Department

Status
Using license-plate readers
Vendors
Motorola Solutions
Cameras
11
11 LPRs operated in 2025 (10 in 2024), per its reports to the General Assembly.
  1. June 2008 The department bought a mobile plate reader for about $30,000, using a $12,000 state Vehicle Theft Prevention Council grant and city vehicle-forfeiture funds. (The Capital (via Police1), Sept. 1, 2008)
  2. 2025 The department reported using the Vigilant LPR system as its primary platform, with 28,609,124 reads and 1,255 queries in 2025; it keeps reads no longer than 180 days. (Maryland Department of State Police / Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center (via Department of Legislative Services Library), March 1, 2026)
Conflicts and open questions
  • The 2008 article names the device (Mobile Plate Hunter 900) but not its maker; that purchase is not counted as a vendor here.
  • Unit count for 2024 from the MCAC report filed March 5, 2025.

From agency records.

Anne Arundel County Police Department

Status
Using license-plate readers
Vendors
Flock Safety, Leonardo (ELSAG), Motorola Solutions
Cameras
216
216 fixed cameras plus 49 mobile units (98 cameras mounted in pairs), per the department's report on 2025. The county's ALPR web page separately lists 91 fixed LPR locations.
  1. 2011 The county's ALPR page says plate readers have been in use in Anne Arundel County since 2011. (Anne Arundel County Government (Police Department), date not shown)
  2. 2025 The department reported 499,482,425 plate reads from fixed and mobile readers in 2025, 27,632 queries of stored data, and 28 users authorized to query; it reported no breaches or unauthorized use. (Maryland Department of State Police / Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center (via Department of Legislative Services Library), March 1, 2026)
  3. Feb. 2025 The department opened its Real-time Information Center to public view; its tools include CCTV feeds and license plate readers. (CBS News Baltimore, Feb. 4, 2025)
  4. Oct. 2026 The department told the Baltimore Banner that Flock is its largest plate-reader system and that it uses only still images, not the cameras' video or AI features. The Banner reported the department logged 29 million reads in 2025. (The Baltimore Banner, Oct. 1, 2026)
Conflicts and open questions
  • Systems listed on the county page: Flock fixed and trailer cameras (Falcon still-image cameras; the department says it does not use Flock's Condor video cameras), ELSAG (Leonardo) mobile readers, and query access to Motorola's Vigilant third-party data.
  • Retention: Flock 30 days; ELSAG data kept locally for 24 hours and sent to the state's MCAC center; Vigilant data under Motorola's policy (county page and 2025 report).
  • Dated by month: CBS News Baltimore (Feb. 4, 2025) says the public viewed the center on Tuesday.
  • Read counts differ by source: the department's own report gives 499,482,425 reads in 2025; the MCAC summary table lists 39,501,912 reads submitted to the center; the Banner gives 29 million.
  • The county ALPR page carries no date; content refers to fall 2026.

From agency records.

Statewide

  1. April 14, 2014 The governor signed SB 699 (Chapter 192 of 2014), effective Oct. 1, 2014. It limits police use of captured plate data to a "legitimate law enforcement purpose," shields reader data from the Public Information Act, requires the State Police and agencies using readers to adopt operating and audit procedures, and requires annual reports to the General Assembly starting in 2016. (Maryland General Assembly, April 14, 2014; Maryland Department of Legislative Services, 2015)
  2. March 18, 2015 The House Judiciary Committee gave an unfavorable report to HB 417, which would have barred police from stopping a driver solely because plate-reader data showed the owner held a handgun carry permit. A similar bill, HB 1398, was filed in 2017; the legislature's site shows a March 14 hearing scheduled and no later action. (Maryland General Assembly, March 18, 2015; Maryland Department of Legislative Services, 2015; Maryland General Assembly, 2017)
  3. Oct. 1, 2015 MCAC sent its model audit policy for plate-reader data, developed in August 2015, to all Maryland law enforcement agencies. Under it, agencies audit a random sample of at least 1% of searches (minimum 50). (Maryland State Police / Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center (via Department of Legislative Services Library), March 5, 2025; Maryland Department of State Police / Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center (via Department of Legislative Services Library), March 1, 2026)
  4. May 16, 2024 The governor signed HB 1081 and SB 840 (Chapters 875 and 876 of 2024), effective Oct. 1, 2024. The law covers plate data stored in the cloud, makes captured data the property of the agency that collected it, bars its sale, allows certain data to be uploaded to MCAC, and extends penalties to vendors working for police. The House passed it 119-17 and the Senate 47-0. (Maryland General Assembly, May 16, 2024; Maryland General Assembly, 2024)
  5. Feb. 4, 2025 MCAC's report to legislators for calendar 2024 counted 857 reader units connected to the center and 1,010,086,796 reads retained from 18 agencies. It logged 5,221 requests to the center, 732 of them federal (609 resulting in a release), and reported no breaches. (Maryland State Police / Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center (via Department of Legislative Services Library), March 5, 2025)
  6. Feb. 27, 2026 MCAC's report for calendar 2025 counted 1,077 reader units connected to the center and 1,188,559,099 reads from 19 agencies. It logged 4,737 requests, 674 of them federal (570 resulting in a release), and reported no breaches. MCAC said it could not confirm that the agencies whose reports it forwarded were the only ones in Maryland using plate readers. (Maryland Department of State Police / Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center (via Department of Legislative Services Library), March 1, 2026; The Baltimore Sun (via WBFF FOX45), Aug. 25, 2026)
  7. Aug. 2026 After a Baltimore Sun analysis of the state reports, Sen. Charles Sydnor III (D-Baltimore County) said his office had begun collecting information to decide whether more legislation is needed. In October, The Banner reported that Sydnor, Senate Minority Leader Steven Hershey and Del. N. Scott Phillips want the 2027 session to look at private-sector plate readers, which state law does not regulate. (The Baltimore Sun (via WBFF FOX45), Aug. 25, 2026; The Baltimore Banner, Oct. 1, 2026)

State agencies

Maryland State Police (Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center)

Status
Using license-plate readers
Vendors
Vendor not named in source
Cameras
Count not documented
No unit count given for the State Police's own readers. MCAC runs the state's central plate-data server, and 1,077 units statewide were connected to it in 2025.
  1. Feb. 4, 2025 MCAC reported 73,402,736 reads from its own (State Police) readers in 2024, with 58 MCAC employees authorized to search the database. (Maryland State Police / Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center (via Department of Legislative Services Library), March 5, 2025)
  2. Feb. 27, 2026 MCAC reported 79,915,710 reads from State Police readers in 2025. It audited 80 of the 4,737 requests it received, and 58 employees were authorized to search. (Maryland Department of State Police / Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center (via Department of Legislative Services Library), March 1, 2026)
  3. April 1, 2026 In an April 1, 2026 letter on HB 1166, a front-plate bill, the State Police said plate readers used by Maryland law enforcement include fixed and mobile units, and that program figures show 30% to 40% of plates read by mobile units are front plates. (Maryland Department of State Police, Government Affairs Section, April 1, 2026)
Conflicts and open questions
  • Vendor not stated in the records found.

From agency records.

Maryland Transportation Authority Police

Status
Using license-plate readers
Vendors
Vendor not named in source
Cameras
126
126 cameras in 2025: 86 at nine fixed locations and 40 on 20 mobile units (124 in 2024).
  1. 2016 The State Police report for 2015 listed MDTA Police with 54,246,732 reads from fixed units and 1,519,931 from mobile units. (Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center, March 1, 2016)
  2. 2025 MDTA Police said its readers made 288,972,074 reads in 2024 and 303,253,851 in 2025, all sent to MCAC. Its own server keeps reads for no more than 14 days. MCAC's table counted 296,536,235 MDTA reads for 2025, the most of any agency. (Maryland State Police / Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center (via Department of Legislative Services Library), March 5, 2025; Maryland Department of State Police / Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center (via Department of Legislative Services Library), March 1, 2026)
  3. Feb. 19, 2026 The MDTA Office of Audits' compliance audit of 2025 plate-reader use (report INT 2026-07) found controls working and no reportable findings. (Maryland Department of State Police / Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center (via Department of Legislative Services Library), March 1, 2026)
Conflicts and open questions
  • The Banner (Oct. 1, 2026) gave 1.5 million reads for 2015, which matches the mobile-unit count in the 2016 state report only.
  • Report figures differ: MDTA's own total and MCAC's table for 2025 are not the same; both are given as filed.

From agency records.