Statute · Minnesota · 2015, amended 2021 and 2024
Minnesota’s ALPR statute
The strictest license plate reader law in the country on paper: a 60-day clock, a public audit trail, an audit every two years, and a commissioner who can shut a program down. It never asks whether the cameras were needed.
6
Meets
13
Partial
0
Fails
7
Missing
of 26 practices this document could address
Minnesota passed its license plate reader statute in 2015. It limits what a reader may collect to plates, time, location and pictures. It classifies the data as private. It orders anything not tied to an active investigation destroyed within 60 days. Every query has to rest on reasonable suspicion, carry a case number, and land in an audit trail that is itself public. Every agency has to keep a public log of use, post the locations of fixed cameras, report each reader to the BCA within ten days, and arrange an independent audit every two years. A companion section, 626.8472, prohibits running a reader without a written policy.
The enforcement clause is real. If the Commissioner of Administration finds a pattern of substantial noncompliance, the agency must suspend every reader until the commissioner says otherwise.
What the statute does not do is ask the first question. Nothing requires an agency to show why it needs the cameras, what it tried first, or to put the purchase in front of a council. Nothing caps how many readers a city can run or where. Nothing defines what an independent audit has to test, or who counts as independent. And the sharing clause treats every law enforcement agency alike, which is how a Minnesota city that bans immigration use of its data still fielded 2,637 immigration searches from agencies in other states.
Primary source
Minn. Stat. § 13.824, Automated license plate readers (with § 626.8472, written policy required)Read 2026-09-28
Practice by practice
What the document says, or does not say, on each practice in the Standard. Practices this kind of document has no business addressing are marked n/a. These marks are evidence for a jurisdiction’s grade; the document itself gets no score.
Stage 1
Decide
- Missing
No necessity finding is required before an agency buys or installs a reader.
- Missing
No requirement to consider alternatives.
- Partial
1.3Public notice and a recorded vote
Subd. 8 requires notice to the BCA within ten days of installation, and the BCA list is public. Notice arrives after the purchase. No vote by an elected body is required.
Stage 2
Acquire
- Partial
2.2Published use policy before deployment
§ 626.8472: “Use of an automated license plate reader without adoption of a written policy under this section is prohibited,” and the policy must incorporate 13.824 and the discipline standards in 13.09. The statute does not require the policy to be posted where the public can find it.
- Missing
Stage 3
Deploy
- Meets
3.1Purpose limitation in writing
Subd. 2 limits collection to plates, time, location and pictures; limits matching to the Minnesota plate file unless an active investigation justifies more; bars tracking an individual without a warrant; and prohibits a central state repository unless a law authorizes one.
- Partial
Fixed camera locations must be listed publicly (subd. 5(b)) and reported to the BCA (subd. 8). Nothing limits how many readers an agency may run or where.
- Partial
Public log of use and a public list of fixed locations, subject to a security-information exception reviewable by a judge. No signage requirement.
Stage 4
Use
- Meets
4.1Logged justification for every query
Subd. 7(b): each access requires written authorization, “a legitimate, specified, and documented law enforcement purpose,” reasonable suspicion, and “a record of the factual basis for the access and any associated case number.” Subd. 7(c): every query, response and dissemination goes in an audit trail, and the audit trail is public.
- Meets
4.2Access control and separation of duties
Role-based access tied to duties and training (subd. 7(c)); access authorized in writing by the agency head (subd. 7(b)); records reviewed by an outside auditor (subd. 6).
- Partial
The collection and matching limits in subd. 2 constrain new uses. The statute does not address vendor features that arrive after deployment, such as network-wide search.
- Partial
4.4Misuse is reported like a near miss
Policies must include discipline standards for unauthorized access (§ 626.8472, 13.09) and audit results are public. No requirement to investigate or report individual misuse.
Stage 5
Share
- Partial
5.1No sharing without a published policy
Subd. 4: data not tied to an active investigation may be shared only with another law enforcement agency that meets the subd. 7 access standards, and may not be sold or traded. “Law enforcement agency” includes federal agencies and out-of-state departments, and the statute says nothing about immigration enforcement.
- Partial
Dissemination must be recorded in the public audit trail (subd. 7(c)). No requirement to name the vendor’s sub-processors or downstream recipients.
- Partial
Subd. 4(b): an agency that receives shared data “must comply with all data classification, destruction, and security requirements of this section.” Downstream deletion by operation of law, enforceable against a Minnesota agency and doubtful against anyone else.
Stage 6
Retain
- Meets
6.1Shortest retention that serves the stated purpose
Subd. 3(a): data not related to an active criminal investigation “must be destroyed no later than 60 days from the date of collection.”
- Partial
Destruction is mandatory and the biennial audit checks it. “Destroyed” is not defined, and vendor copies and exports are not mentioned.
- Partial
6.3Sealed and expunged records are removed
Subd. 3(c): data on a participant in the address confidentiality program must be destroyed on request. Nothing on sealed or expunged records generally.
Stage 7
Audit
- Partial
7.1Independent audit on a schedule
Subd. 6 requires an independent audit every two years, public, filed with the commissioner and the legislature within 30 days. It never defines “independent,” sets no testing standard, and lets the agency choose its auditor. See ALPR Audit Watch for what that produces.
- Meets
7.2Logs available to the oversight body
The audit trail (subd. 7(c)) and the log of use (subd. 5) are public. Anyone, including a council member, can pull them.
- Partial
7.3Annual public report with counts
The public log must state times of active collection, aggregate reads, and hit counts by category for each period of use. No counts of sharing requests, misuse, or cost, and no fixed publication date.
Stage 8
Retire
- Meets
Subd. 6(b): on a pattern of substantial noncompliance, “the agency must immediately suspend operation of all automated license plate reader devices until the commissioner has authorized the agency to reinstate their use.”
- Missing
8.2Exit terms and certified destruction
Nothing on what happens to vendor-held data when a program or contract ends.
What to take from it
The statute governs a camera once it exists. It is strong on the query, the log, the clock and the audit, and it has an off switch. It is silent on the decision to buy, silent on scope, and treats a Texas sheriff with a 287(g) agreement the same as the department next door. The gap is in Stage 1 and Stage 5, and Minnesota cities have spent 2025 and 2026 discovering both.