Brewer will stop using license plate reading cameras after vendor stored data too long
Brewer, Maine, has announced that it will discontinue its use of automatic license‑plate‑reading cameras after discovering that its service provider, Leonardo, had kept vehicle images for a period longer than state law allows.
The town’s decision follows an internal review that found Leonardo’s data‑retention policy exceeded the limits set by the Maine Legislature. Under current law, images captured by license‑plate cameras must be deleted within 30 days, except in very specific circumstances. Leonardo’s records indicate that the images were stored for up to 90 days, a clear violation of the statute.
“The town cannot continue to use a system that is not in compliance with Maine law,” Brewer’s municipal manager said in a statement released on Friday. “We are committed to protecting the privacy of our residents and to following all state regulations.”
Leonardo, a video‑analytics firm that has supplied license‑plate‑reader systems to municipalities across the country, said it had been reviewing its retention policy and was working to bring its practices into line with state requirements. However, the company confirmed that it had not been aware that it was exceeding the 30‑day limit until the town’s audit.
The license‑plate‑reader program, which had been in place since 2019, was intended to help Brewer enforce traffic regulations and improve public safety by automatically capturing the plates of vehicles that entered or exited municipal property. While the system did not collect any personal information beyond the plate numbers and associated timestamps, the retention of images for extended periods raised concerns about the potential misuse of the data.
Town officials say the cameras will remain in place but will no longer be connected to Leonardo’s cloud‑storage system. Instead, Brewer plans to store the images on local servers where they will be deleted automatically after 30 days. The municipality has also said it will explore other technologies that provide similar traffic‑monitoring benefits without violating privacy statutes.
This development is part of a broader scrutiny of license‑plate‑reader use in Maine. In recent months, state lawmakers have debated tightening regulations on the technology, and several other municipalities have announced plans to audit their own vendor agreements.
For now, Brewer’s decision underscores the importance of ensuring that private‑sector technology used by local governments complies with public‑sector privacy laws. The town’s move to halt the vendor’s services is expected to set a precedent for other communities grappling with similar issues.
