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License-plate readers · Montgomery County

Montgomery County

Using license-plate readers · 3 agencies documented

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Gaithersburg Police Department

Status
Program documented, current use unconfirmed
Vendors
Vendor not named in source
Cameras
Count not documented
Count not stated. The 2014 general order covers vehicle-mounted, portable and fixed readers and a speed board/LPR trailer.
  1. Feb. 26, 2014 General Order 616.4 on the department's license plate recognition system took effect, with a 30-day retention period. (Gaithersburg Police Department, Feb. 26, 2014)
Conflicts and open questions
  • No current source on use found; the department did not appear in the state's 2024 or 2025 lists of agencies submitting reports.

From agency records.

Montgomery County Police Department

Status
Using license-plate readers
Vendors
Leonardo (ELSAG), Axon, Rekor Systems
Cameras
860
860 units in 2025 per the department's report to the state: 33 ELSAG (Leonardo) units (30 mobile, one of them installed; 1 stationary trailer, non-operational; 2 fixed cameras, non-operational since May), 825 Axon in-car units, and 2 Rekor fixed units on mobile surveillance trailers. Only one ELSAG unit was listed as currently active. In 2024 it reported 779 units (10 ELSAG, 769 Axon).
  1. Oct. 31, 2022 Directive FC 424 on the department's license plate recognition system took effect, setting a 365-day retention period. (Montgomery County Department of Police, Oct. 31, 2022)
  2. Feb. 14, 2025 In its report to the state for 2024, the department listed 779 plate-reader units and 93,238,025 reads, of which 7,709,210 (from ELSAG units) went to the state fusion center (MCAC). Reads are purged after 365 days. (Maryland State Police / Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center (via Department of Legislative Services Library), March 5, 2025)
  3. Feb. 12, 2026 In its report to the state for 2025, the department listed 860 units and 109,837,767 reads; only the 2,012,682 reads from ELSAG units were sent to MCAC. It logged 113 requests for its data, 58 of which led to a release. (Maryland Department of State Police / Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center (via Department of Legislative Services Library), March 1, 2026)
  4. Sept. 2, 2026 County Executive Marc Elrich said he supports county police use of plate readers; county officials said the county's readers are not Flock cameras. (FOX 5 DC, Sept. 2, 2026)
Conflicts and open questions
  • Department directive FC 424 (effective Oct. 31, 2022) covers mobile, stationary and fixed readers and sets 365-day retention in its ALPR data system.
  • MCAC's report says it cannot attest to the accuracy of agency submissions.

From agency records.

Takoma Park Police Department

Status
Program documented, current use unconfirmed
Vendors
Vendor not named in source
Cameras
Count not documented
Count not stated. The general order covers vehicle-mounted, portable and fixed readers.
  1. April 2022 General Order 717 on plate-recognition scanners, last reviewed April 20, 2022, was posted as a supplemental document for a City Council agenda; it says reader data is sent automatically to MCAC. (Takoma Park Police Department / City of Takoma Park, April 20, 2022)
Conflicts and open questions
  • The order's effective date is blank; it is not clear from the document whether it was adopted.
  • No current source on use found; the department did not appear in the state's 2024 or 2025 lists of agencies submitting reports.

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.