Rein in license‑plate surveillance in Monterey County.

To the Monterey County Board of Supervisors and the city councils of Salinas, Seaside, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Carmel-by-the-Sea, and every jurisdiction in the county that operates automated license plate readers:

We, the undersigned residents of Monterey County, are alarmed that hundreds of automated license plate readers now record and store the movements of every driver in our communities. These cameras track us without a warrant and without our consent, and they share our data with thousands of outside agencies. We were never asked whether we wanted to live under this kind of surveillance.

We call on our elected officials to bring this technology under public control. Specifically, we ask that you:

1. Publicly disclose every ALPR camera in the county, including its exact location and the agency that operates it.
2. Require a public hearing and a council vote before any new cameras are installed or any existing contract is renewed.
3. Set strict limits on how long our data is stored, and prohibit sharing it with federal and out-of-state agencies.
4. Publish an annual audit of how the system is used and of every agency that has searched our data.

The surveillance of an entire community should never be the default. We are signing to demand transparency, accountability, and consent.