Model Resolution: Municipal ALPR Discontinuation

DRAFT FOR CONSIDERATION — NOT ADOPTED

RESOLUTION OF THE TOWN COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF ______________ DISCONTINUING THE OPERATION OF AUTOMATED LICENSE PLATE READER AND MASS SURVEILLANCE TECHNOLOGY, DIRECTING THE DISPOSITION OF COLLECTED DATA, AND REQUIRING COUNCIL AUTHORIZATION FOR ANY FUTURE ACQUISITION

Resolution No. 2026-____

[Model instrument for a New Hanover County municipality — Carolina Beach, Kure Beach, or Wrightsville Beach. Bracketed terms require local confirmation.]

Recitals

WHEREAS, N.C. Gen. Stat. § 160A-67 vests the government and general management of the Town in the Town Council; and

WHEREAS, N.C. Gen. Stat. § 160A-146 authorizes the Council to “create, change, abolish, and consolidate offices, positions, departments, boards, commissions, and agencies” of Town government; and

WHEREAS, N.C. Gen. Stat. § 160A-281 provides that a city may appoint a chief of police and employ other police officers, and the Police Department is a department of the Town whose personnel serve under the Town Manager; and

WHEREAS, N.C. Gen. Stat. § 160A-148 makes the Town Manager the chief administrator of the Town, responsible to the Council, charged with directing all departments and with ensuring that the resolutions of the Council are faithfully executed; and

WHEREAS, N.C. Gen. Stat. § 160A-296 grants the Town “general authority and control over all public streets, sidewalks, alleys, bridges, and other ways of public passage within its corporate limits,” including authority to regulate their use and the placement of structures within them, excepting streets under the control of the Department of Transportation; and

WHEREAS, Article 3D of Chapter 20 of the General Statutes permits, but does not require, a law enforcement agency to operate an automated license plate reader system, and provides in N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-183.31 that each agency shall adopt a written policy governing its use; and

WHEREAS, the ninety-day limit on preservation of captured plate data stated in N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-183.32 is a maximum and not a minimum, so that an agency may adopt a shorter ordinary retention period or decline to operate such a system at all, subject always to the preservation obligations that attach upon a sworn preservation request, a search warrant, a court order, or an evidentiary hold; and

WHEREAS, the Council has considered the volume of data collected, the number and identity of agencies with access to that data, and the absence of individualized suspicion attending its collection; and

WHEREAS, the Council finds that the Town’s participation in automated mass collection of data regarding the movements of residents and visitors is not warranted, and that the decision belongs to the Council in a public meeting;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Town Council of the Town of ______________ as follows:

Section 1. Definitions

(a) “Surveillance Technology” means any equipment, software, subscription, hosted service, or system whose function includes the automated capture, recording, retention, aggregation, or analysis of data identifying or capable of identifying individuals, vehicles, or their movements. The term includes, without limitation, automated license plate reader systems, facial recognition systems, biometric identification systems, unmanned aircraft systems equipped for such capture, cell-site simulators, gunshot detection systems, persistent video analytics, and any platform providing access to data collected by such systems, whether collected within or outside the Town.

(b) “Surveillance Technology” does not include ordinary building and facility security cameras that record only a discrete Town facility and its immediate approaches and are not integrated with any identification, analytics, or external data-sharing platform; body-worn and in-car cameras governed by N.C. Gen. Stat. § 132-1.4A; standard information technology security, network monitoring, and access control systems; traffic control and signal timing devices; beach, weather, and marine condition cameras that do not perform identification or analytics; and equipment used solely for utility metering or facilities management.

(c) “Town Property” means all real and personal property owned, leased, or controlled by the Town, including land, buildings, grounds, parking areas, rooftops, poles, towers, conduit, easements held by the Town, and Town information technology and network infrastructure.

(d) “Town Right-of-Way” means all public streets, sidewalks, alleys, bridges, and other ways of public passage within the corporate limits over which the Town holds authority under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 160A-296, excluding streets under the control of the Department of Transportation.

(e) “Acquisition” means any purchase, lease, license, subscription, rental, trial, loan, gift, donation, grant-funded procurement, or other means of obtaining Surveillance Technology or access to data generated by Surveillance Technology, and includes any renewal, extension, amendment, or expansion of an existing arrangement.

Section 2. Discontinuation of the program

The Town shall not acquire, operate, maintain, or participate in Surveillance Technology.

The Town Manager is directed to discontinue the operation of all Surveillance Technology by or on behalf of the Town, including all automated license plate reader systems operated by the Police Department, no later than [thirty (30)] days from the date of adoption.

This Section states Town policy regarding the allocation of Town personnel, funds, and facilities. It does not direct the exercise of law enforcement discretion in any particular investigation, and it does not regulate any person or entity other than the Town.

Section 3. Contracts

The Town Manager is directed to deliver to the Council a complete copy of each Town contract for Surveillance Technology, together with every amendment, exhibit, and order form.

The Town Manager is directed to give timely written notice of non-renewal of each such contract, and to exercise any right of termination available to the Town, including any right of termination for convenience, at the earliest date the instrument permits.

No renewal, extension, amendment, or new instrument for the Acquisition of Surveillance Technology may be executed by any officer or employee of the Town, and no preaudit certificate shall be issued for any such instrument, without prior authorization of this Council granted at a regular or special meeting. This reservation applies regardless of dollar amount.

Section 4. Data

The Town Manager is directed to:

(a) terminate the Town’s participation in every external, regional, state, and federal data-sharing arrangement associated with Surveillance Technology, and revoke all access granted to agencies outside the Town;

(b) reduce the ordinary retention period for any data lawfully retained pending discontinuation to the shortest period consistent with N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-183.32 and with any preservation request, search warrant, court order, or evidentiary hold then in effect;

(c) cause all data collected by the Town through Surveillance Technology to be deleted upon discontinuation, except data subject to a lawful preservation request, search warrant, court order, litigation hold, or records retention schedule of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources;

(d) preserve the complete audit record of searches and disclosures, together with the identity of each agency granted access, and deliver that record to the Council; and

(e) obtain written confirmation from each vendor that Town data has been deleted from the vendor’s systems and from those of its subprocessors.

Section 5. Town Right-of-Way and Town Property

No Surveillance Technology may be installed, mounted, affixed, connected, hosted, or maintained within the Town Right-of-Way or on or through Town Property without prior authorization of this Council granted at a regular or special meeting.

This Section applies without regard to the identity of the owner or operator of the equipment, the identity of the contracting party, or the source of funds. It applies whether the equipment is owned by the Town, by a vendor, by another unit of government, by a State or federal agency, or by a private party, and whether it is provided at cost, at no cost, on trial, or by donation.

Every encroachment agreement, permit, license, or informal permission previously granted for the placement of Surveillance Technology within the Town Right-of-Way or on Town Property is revoked effective [sixty (60)] days from adoption, except where this Council affirmatively reauthorizes a specific placement before that date.

This Section operates subject to any lease, license, easement, contract, statutory duty, or court order by which the Town is itself bound. Before giving effect to the revocation stated above, the Town Manager shall, with the Town Attorney, review title, site licenses, encroachment agreements, and vendor contracts, and shall report to the Council any placement that rests on a legal interest the Town cannot unilaterally revoke, together with the terms on which it may be ended.

The Town Manager is directed to give written notice of this Section to each vendor, agency, utility, and party known to maintain Surveillance Technology within the Town Right-of-Way or on Town Property, and to identify for the Council which streets within the corporate limits are maintained by the Department of Transportation and therefore outside the Town’s control.

Section 6. Gifts, donations, and no-cost deployments

No officer or employee of the Town may accept, on behalf of the Town or for use within the Town Right-of-Way or on Town Property, any Surveillance Technology or access to Surveillance Technology data offered as a gift, donation, grant, pilot, demonstration, trial, or no-cost or reduced-cost deployment, without prior authorization of this Council.

Any grant funds sought or received for the Acquisition of Surveillance Technology shall be presented to the Council for acceptance and appropriation in the budget ordinance as required by N.C. Gen. Stat. § 159-8 before any obligation is incurred.

Section 7. Written policy under State law

For so long as the Police Department operates any automated license plate reader system, the written policy required by N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-183.31 shall be presented to the Council for review before it takes effect, and any amendment to that policy shall be presented in the same manner.

The Council adopts this requirement as the governing body of the agency, exercising the discretion the statute commits to the agency. Nothing in this Section regulates any other agency or any private party.

Section 8. Administration through the Town Manager

This Resolution is directed to the Town Manager, who shall implement it in accordance with N.C. Gen. Stat. § 160A-148. Nothing in this Resolution authorizes any individual member of the Council to direct any Town officer or employee.

Section 9. Reporting

The Town Manager shall report to the Council on implementation of this Resolution at the first regular meeting following each of the thirty-day and sixty-day deadlines stated above, and shall thereafter report annually on the Town’s compliance.

Section 10. Consistency with State law; no regulation of others

This Resolution governs the operations, personnel, contracts, funds, property, and rights-of-way of the Town. It is an exercise of the Council’s authority under N.C. Gen. Stat. §§ 160A-67, 160A-146, 160A-148, 160A-281, and 160A-296, and of the Town’s budget and preaudit authority under Chapter 159 of the General Statutes.

Nothing in this Resolution regulates any field regulated by Article 3D of Chapter 20 of the General Statutes or by any other act of the General Assembly. Nothing in this Resolution restricts any other law enforcement agency in the operation of technology that agency lawfully owns and sites outside the Town Right-of-Way and Town Property. Nothing in this Resolution restricts the Police Department in responding to any imminent threat to life or public safety, provided that the Town Manager reports any resulting deployment to the Council at its next regular meeting and the deployment terminates within thirty (30) days absent Council authorization.

Section 11. Severability

If any provision of this Resolution is held invalid or unenforceable, that holding shall not affect the remaining provisions, which shall remain in full force and effect. The Council declares that it would have adopted each remaining provision independently.

Section 12. Effective date

This Resolution takes effect upon adoption, except where a later date is stated above.

ADOPTED this ______ day of ________________, 2026.

_________________________________________

Mayor

ATTEST:

_________________________________________

Town Clerk

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