Growing Concerns Over Automatic License Plate Readers
A coalition of Idaho residents is mounting a statewide campaign to remove automatic license plate reader cameras from Twin Falls and beyond, citing concerns that the surveillance technology is vulnerable to misuse and poses privacy risks to the public.
The Twin Falls Police Department currently operates 40 ALPR cameras across the city. The devices photograph license plates on passing vehicles and send alerts when plates match active warrants, stolen vehicles, AMBER Alerts, or reports of missing children. The system also records vehicle make, model, and color.
Twin Falls shares its ALPR data with neighboring jurisdictions including Jerome, Kimberly, Filer, and Buhl. The department has also authorized out-of-state agencies to request access to the city’s database.
System Safeguards and Recent Misuse
Twin Falls Police maintains procedural controls on camera access. Officers must enter a case or event number and state their reason when querying the ALPR system. The department employs a designated administrator who conducts routine audits of system use. No Twin Falls cameras have been damaged or destroyed.
The department documents at least one successful case from the system’s early deployment: officers flagged a vehicle connected to a person with a felony out-of-state warrant for harming a child. The suspect was taken into custody, and the child victim in the vehicle was safely removed.
However, the campaign gained momentum after Jerome County’s former sheriff misused the Flock system in March, searching for his wife’s vehicle before stepping down from office. That incident underscored activist concerns about oversight.
Brian McKellar, co-organizer of the campaign group Deflock Idaho, pointed to the incident as evidence of systemic vulnerability. “There was an officer who looked up his wife a whole bunch of times and stepped down,” McKellar said. “And so it’s kind of a system that’s too easily abused.”
Campaign Organization and Next Steps
Tyler Cain started the Deflock Idaho social media page and filed a tort claim in Caldwell challenging the cameras’ use. Cain, McKellar, and a third organizer have submitted paperwork to establish Deflock Idaho as a nonprofit with the Idaho Secretary of State.
Twin Falls Police Lieutenant Steven Gassert acknowledged the limitations of the current monitoring system in a prior statement about camera coverage gaps. “Once you get past that location, we don’t know where else throughout the city you’re going,” Gassert said, referring to the challenge of tracking vehicles between camera zones.
The activist push reflects broader national debate over license plate reader technology. While law enforcement agencies argue the cameras aid in locating suspects and protecting missing children, civil liberties advocates worry that the ease of searching records creates opportunities for unauthorized access—whether by officers acting on personal grudges or through data breaches.
Twin Falls’ 40-camera network makes it one of Idaho’s larger ALPR deployments. The system has been in operation for several years and remains active.
What Comes Next
Deflock Idaho’s nonprofit status would allow the group to pursue formal challenges to the camera network and potentially lobby state lawmakers for restrictions on ALPR use. The campaign has not announced specific legislative proposals or a timeline for action. Twin Falls Police Department has not indicated plans to reduce or remove the cameras.