Urbandale resident urges council to curb use of automatic license-plate readers

Holly Thayer spoke during Citizens Forum to urge the Urbandale City Council to reconsider the city’s use of automatic license-plate readers, saying the technology collects photos of license plates ‘‘indiscriminately’’ and can feed growing private databases maintained by companies such as Flock.

"These databases include tracking information on many people who have not committed crimes," Thayer said, and she urged the council either to stop using ALPRs or to adopt stricter privacy protections and review whether Urbandale’s data is accessible nationally.

Mayor (presiding officer) responded that the city and police chief are already reviewing ALPR usage and that staff will take a closer look at the concerns Thayer raised. Council members and staff later referenced ongoing work to assemble and communicate the city’s safeguards, with several councilmembers proposing clearer public messaging about policies and third‑party data handling.

The comment came amid several council items where members emphasized transparency about data handling. No formal action on ALPR policy was taken at the meeting; the council asked staff and the police chief to follow up and to share information with the public.