Surveillance

Kansas Lawsuit: ALPRs Turn a License Plate Into the 'Functional Equivalent' of a 'GPS Tracking Device'

The Kansas Justice Institute argues that Wichita's "warrantless ALPR dragnet surveillance program" violates the state constitution's privacy protections.

Jacob Sullum | 7.31.2026 3:00 PM

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Mason Grimmett (Kansas Justice Institute)

By themselves, license plates, which debuted in the United States at the turn of the 20th century, are pretty low-tech. But when combined with a network of AI-assisted automatic license plate readers (ALPRs), those aluminum rectangles stamped with numbers and letters become tracking devices that can provide a comprehensive history of a driver's movements, potentially revealing sensitive information about his habits, health, relationships, political affiliations, and religious beliefs.

Police departments across the country nevertheless deploy such systems and routinely search the information they collect without reasonable suspicion, probable cause, a warrant, or any sort of judicial supervision. Police in Wichita, Kansas, for instance, have access to data from about 200 Flock Safety ALPR cameras, which are deployed widely enough that it is nearly impossible for the average driver to avoid surveillance as he goes about his daily life. That program violates the Kansas Constitution's privacy protections, according to a lawsuit that the Kansas Justice Institute (KJI) filed this week in the Sedgwick County District Court.

The plaintiff in Grimmett v. Wichita, local privacy activist Mason Grimmett, "is a law-abiding citizen trapped in Wichita's warrantless ALPR dragnet surveillance program," says Sam MacRoberts, KJI's litigation director. "He's done absolutely nothing wrong, but he's still being tracked, monitored, and databased. That's unconstitutional. If Wichita wants to track its citizens, it needs to go to a judge and get a warrant."

Information from Wichita's ALPR surveillance system, which includes photographs, locations, and many other details that can be inferred from them, is retained for at least 30 days but "can be stored indefinitely" in some circumstances, Grimmett's complaint says. The database, which offers both real-time and historical information, can be accessed by "virtually every police officer in Wichita," plus "hundreds of other law enforcement agencies."

In practice, police can search that database at will on computers or mobile phones, conducting sophisticated queries that specify vehicle characteristics, generate travel maps and route predictions, and may include "convoy analysis," which "documents vehicles that have been spotted in the vicinity of a target vehicle." The lawsuit notes that ALPR photos include bumper stickers and decals, which can alert police to a driver's political views.

Wichita police are supposed to use the city's surveillance network and database only when they have a "legitimate law enforcement purpose." But Wichita police Lt. Brian Safris has conceded that it's "not even possible" to enforce that policy by making sure that each search complies with it. The lawsuit mentions several cases in Kansas and other states where cops have been caught using ALPR systems for unapproved purposes such as stalking ex-girlfriends, possibly unfaithful spouses, and........

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