Automated license plate readers — high-speed cameras that capture the license plate information of each passing vehicle — are making headlines for all the wrong reasons.

In Arkansas, recently released body camera footage shows a young couple with a small baby in the car being detained at gunpoint after an ALPR mistakenly flagged their vehicle as stolen. 

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This is hardly an isolated incident. Errors involving ALPRs have led to innocent people being held at gunpoint and even jailed, while misuse of the technology has enabled law enforcement officers to stalk former romantic partners and obtain private information about the citizens they are sworn to protect and serve.

But the problem with ALPRs goes beyond errors and abuse. Their ordinary use raises a more fundamental constitutional concern. These camera systems allow the government to collect and retain enormous amounts of personal information about people who are not suspected of any crime, all without a warrant.

A recent Supreme Court decision provides courts with a framework for confronting that problem.

The court recently ruled in Chatrie v. United States that the government’s collection of cellphone location history constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment because people have a privacy interest in........

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