Arkansas License Plate Reader Laws

Status at a glance

How we read the statute

Act 1491 of 2013 created the “Automatic License Plate Reader System Act” as Ark. Code §§ 12-12-1801 to -1808. Act 849 of 2015 added weigh-station use by the Arkansas Highway Police. Act 668 of 2025, approved April 16, 2025, added private landowner and business use, a 60-day private retention limit, a subpoena rule and Attorney General enforcement.

We rebuilt the current text from the enacted acts on the Arkansas Legislature’s site, because the consolidated code is published only through a commercial service. Our copy of Act 668 doesn’t show which words are struck or underlined, so its exact wording should be checked against the official code.

Who may use ALPRs

Using an ALPR system is unlawful for individuals, businesses and the state and its subdivisions except as § 12-12-1803(b) allows. The allowed uses are:

• by a state, county or municipal law enforcement agency to compare captured plate data with data held by the Office of Motor Vehicle, the Arkansas Crime Information Center, NCIC, “a database created by law enforcement for the purposes of an ongoing investigation,” and the FBI, “for any lawful purpose” ((b)(1));
• by parking enforcement entities, and to control access to secured areas ((b)(2)–(3));
• by a private landowner, leaseholder or commercial business to promote public safety, deter crime and monitor access to its property ((b)(4), added by Act 668); and
• by the Arkansas Highway Police at weigh-station entrance ramps, to verify commercial vehicle compliance data ((b)(5)).

“Captured plate data” includes GPS coordinates, date and time, photograph, plate number, and other data captured by or derived from the system. It “shall not include any personal data” (§ 12-12-1802(3)). Because private users are covered, the Act also matters for private and HOA cameras.

Retention: 150 days and 60 days

Captured plate data may not be used or shared for any other purpose. Under § 12-12-1804(a) as amended by Act 668, it may be kept no longer than “Sixty (60) days by a private landowner, private leaseholder, or commercial business” or “One hundred fifty (150) days by all other eligible entities.” Data a law enforcement agency obtains under (b)(1) “may be retained as part of an ongoing investigation” and must be destroyed when an investigation ends without charges or when the criminal action ends (§ 12-12-1804(b)).

See ALPR data retention and sharing.

Sharing and subpoenas

• A government user “shall not sell, trade, or exchange captured plate data for any purpose,” except that law enforcement data “that indicates evidence of an offense may be shared with other law enforcement agencies” (§ 12-12-1804(d)(1)–(2)).
• A government entity may compel release of data from parking, secured-area or private users only “through a valid subpoena” (§ 12-12-1804(d)(3), added by Act 668).
• Private users may not sell or trade data for a commercial purpose. They may share it with a contracted third-party processor, whose contract must cap retention at 60 days (§ 12-12-1804(e)).

The statute has no rule specific to out-of-state agencies.

Disclosure and public records

Captured plate data “may be disclosed only” to the registered owner, with the registered owner’s written consent, or as the federal Driver Privacy Protection Act permits (§ 12-12-1808(a)(1)). Practice and usage statistics are public records under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act (§ 12-12-1808(a)(2)).

Statistics and published rules

Law enforcement, parking, secured-area and Highway Police users must compile statistics every six months in a format the public can review and keep them for 18 months (§ 12-12-1805(a)(1)–(2)). The statistics include plates scanned, the lists checked, confirmed matches, matches that “upon further investigation did not correlate to an alert,” and matches that led to arrest and prosecution (§ 12-12-1805(b)). These users must also adopt rules and policies on obtaining, retaining and destroying data, and make them available for public inspection (§ 12-12-1805(a)(3)(A)).

Evidence exclusion and damages

The Act has two evidence provisions:

• “Failure to comply with subdivision (a)(3)(A) of this section shall be grounds for a court of competent jurisdiction to exclude any evidence obtained under this subchapter” (§ 12-12-1805(a)(3)(B), as renumbered by Act 668).
• “Captured plate data and evidence derived from it shall not be received in evidence in any trial, hearing, or other proceeding” before a state or local court or other authority “if the disclosure of that information would be in violation of this subchapter” (§ 12-12-1806).

A person injured by a violation may sue for actual damages or $1,000 in liquidated damages, whichever is greater, plus costs (§ 12-12-1807(a)–(b)). Act 668 lets the Attorney General enforce the Act under the Deceptive Trade Practices Act (§ 12-12-1807(c)). We didn’t find an Arkansas appellate decision applying these provisions. See grounds to suppress ALPR evidence.

Arkansas State Police rules

The Arkansas State Police publications page links to “License Plate Readers (LPR)” rules under the title “Proposed Rules for License Plate Readers (LPR).” The document says “These rules shall be effective on or after July 1, 2024.” These are one agency’s rules, not the statute, and other agencies’ rules may differ. They provide:

• “The use of LPR systems is restricted to legitimate law enforcement purposes” (Rule 5.a).
• Before a traffic stop based on an LPR alert, the officer must visually verify the plate characters and state of issuance, verify the plate’s status through the communications center or an ACIC/NCIC query, and “Make reasonable efforts to verify that the driver and/or occupants physically match the description of any wanted person(s)” (Rule 6.a).
• Data shared with another agency is recorded on a dissemination log (Rule 6.c).
• Data is stored “for a period not to exceed 150 days” (Rule 6.d), with longer retention under § 12-12-1804(b) logged by the LPR Administrator (Rule 6.e).

What this can mean in an Arkansas case

• Did the agency adopt and publish rules and policies under § 12-12-1805(a)(3)(A)? If not, how does § 12-12-1805(a)(3)(B) apply?
• Was the data older than 150 days (or 60 days, for private-camera data)? If so, was it kept for an ongoing investigation under § 12-12-1804(b)?
• Was the data disclosed in a way § 12-12-1808 allows, and does § 12-12-1806 bear on its use as evidence?
• If police got data from a private camera owner, was there a valid subpoena under § 12-12-1804(d)(3)?
• For a stop on an alert, what verification steps did the officer take? See ALPR alert traffic stops.
• What do the agency’s six-month statistics show about matches that didn’t correlate to an alert?