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The ACLU of Kansas said it wants to have more conversations with the department about ALPRs, including reducing the data retention periods even further and limiting data sharing.

“The Overland Park Police Department has engaged in an open, transparent dialogue about its policy on the use of ALPRs. Chief Jokerst and the department have sought the views of a wide range of individuals and organizations, including those like ours, who have divergent perspectives. The OPPD’s willingness to meaningfully engage and take steps to address our concerns is commendable. The ACLU of Kansas will continue to advocate for ending the use of ALPRs entirely, but the updated OPPD policy is a significant step forward in limiting ALPR use, scope and data retention in ways that seek to protect individual rights. We are committed to continuing the respectful, constructive dialogue which Chief Jokerst and OPPD initiated about ALPRs, including by calling for reduced data retention periods and limits on data sharing,” the ACLU said.

“The OPPD’s willingness to meaningfully engage and take steps to address our concerns is commendable,” Micah Kubic, executive director of the ACLU of Kansas, said in a statement. Kubic said Overland Park police Chief Doreen Jokerst, who took over the department two years ago, sought his input. The civil rights nonprofit opposes widespread use of automated license plate readers, or ALPRs, and has launched a campaign against Flock Safety, one of the primary companies in the industry. “The ACLU of Kansas will continue to advocate for ending the use of ALPRs entirely, but the updated OPPD policy is a significant step forward in limiting ALPR use,” Kubic said.

The Beacon’s local government reporter Josh Merchant moderated the discussion. They were joined by Micah Kubic of the ACLU of Kansas, Wyandotte County Chief Public Defender David Magariel and KCUR metro reporter Sam Zeff. Each participant brought a different expertise to the conversation from privacy and civil liberties to how license plate reader information may enter criminal cases and how the technology is being used across state lines.

Federal ICE agents have already invoked the state law multiple times in Olathe this summer — adding it to city code would let violations be prosecuted in municipal court too.

The ACLU is raising concerns about the abuse of automated license plate reader (ALPR) technology in the wake of a disconcerting story out of Kansas. The technology, which has been described as a tool for mass surveillance, was used by police to track a man who had published an opinion piece critical of the police department in a local paper, and who was subsequently suspected of putting up anti-ICE posters around town a few days before the op-ed was published.

Logan DeMond, director of policy at the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, said the bill would have a chilling effect on the exercise of constitutional freedoms. “Protecting the right to worship is critically important, but it must be balanced with protecting the fundamental right to free expression,” DeMond said. “The bill’s civil enforcement provisions only heighten these concerns.”

Local political and activism organizations formed at each block in what Boots on the Ground Midwest calls “adopting blocks,” so attendees could connect with local groups. Organizations included the KC Handmaid Army, American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, and Equality Kansas.

This movement to restrict student protest is not new, but it has accelerated. The ACLU of Kansas recently detailed how similar attempts to limit speech have already appeared in districts such as Shawnee Mission, where administrators previously tried to suppress speech related to gun violence and even seized student journalists’ recording devices — actions the district later retreated from after legal challenge.