We’re Asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to End Warrantless ALPR Searches (www.eff.org)
<div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden"><div class="field__items"><div class="field__item even"><p>Today, EFF joined the ACLU of Wisconsin in filing a <a href="https://www.eff.org/document/wcc-v-milwaukee-petition">petition</a> to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, asking it to rule that the state’s constitution requires a warrant for retrospective searches of ALPR databases used by law enforcement in four cities: Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha, and Green Bay. We represent a religious organization, the Wisconsin Council of Churches, as well as an individual pastor in Green Bay.</p>
<p>As the petition explains:</p>
<blockquote><p>Right now, Automated License Plate Readers (“ALPRs”) are recording the movements of vast numbers of Wisconsin drivers as they seek medical care, attend 12-step recovery meetings, attend religious services, participate in protests, attend political meetings, and engage in many other private, sensitive activities. Law enforcement entities throughout Wisconsin collect, store, share, and aggregate this ALPR data. Then they search it, retrospectively tracking the movements of individuals and entire communities in ways that would have been prohibitively costly, if not outright impossible, before the advent of ALPR technology.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We all deserve to be free of warrantless mass surveillance. We all deserve to live in a country where surveillance vendors cannot help police upend our system of individualized suspicion. Religious organizations and officials like our clients have a heightened interest in protecting their location privacy because of the range of expressive associations their work entails, including facilitating gatherings for religious worship, as well as offering pastoral care, confidential counseling, and community support. Likewise, the people who visit houses of worship have a strong right to privacy against police monitoring of when they pray, seek addiction counseling, or attend a domestic violence survivor meeting.</p>
<p>This is our second lawsuit challenging warrantless ALPR searches, following <a href="https://www.eff.org/cases/siren-v-san-jose"><em>SIREN v. San Jose.</em></a> Earlier this month, a federal court in Oklahoma became the first to <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/10/federal-court-rules-alprs-are-mass-surveillance-eff-gets-disappointing-ruling">rule</a> that ALPRs are a “type of indiscriminate mass surveillance” and suppress evidence from a warrantless ALPR search. We hope the Wisconsin Supreme Court will agree.</p>
<p>Read the Wisconsin Supreme Court <a href="https://www.eff.org/document/wcc-v-milwaukee-petition">petition</a></p>
<p>Read the <a href="https://www.aclu-wi.org/press-releases/aclu-of-wisconsin-electronic-frontier-foundation-file-lawsuit-at-wisconsin-supreme-court-allege-warrantless-alpr-surveillance-violates-constitution/">press release</a></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field--name-field-related-cases field--type-node-reference field--label-above"><div class="field__label">Related Cases: </div><div class="field__items"><div class="field__item even"><a href="/cases/wisconsin-council-churches-v-milwaukee-racine-kenosha-green-bay">Wisconsin Council of Churches v. Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha & Green Bay</a></div></div></div>
<p>As the petition explains:</p>
<blockquote><p>Right now, Automated License Plate Readers (“ALPRs”) are recording the movements of vast numbers of Wisconsin drivers as they seek medical care, attend 12-step recovery meetings, attend religious services, participate in protests, attend political meetings, and engage in many other private, sensitive activities. Law enforcement entities throughout Wisconsin collect, store, share, and aggregate this ALPR data. Then they search it, retrospectively tracking the movements of individuals and entire communities in ways that would have been prohibitively costly, if not outright impossible, before the advent of ALPR technology.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We all deserve to be free of warrantless mass surveillance. We all deserve to live in a country where surveillance vendors cannot help police upend our system of individualized suspicion. Religious organizations and officials like our clients have a heightened interest in protecting their location privacy because of the range of expressive associations their work entails, including facilitating gatherings for religious worship, as well as offering pastoral care, confidential counseling, and community support. Likewise, the people who visit houses of worship have a strong right to privacy against police monitoring of when they pray, seek addiction counseling, or attend a domestic violence survivor meeting.</p>
<p>This is our second lawsuit challenging warrantless ALPR searches, following <a href="https://www.eff.org/cases/siren-v-san-jose"><em>SIREN v. San Jose.</em></a> Earlier this month, a federal court in Oklahoma became the first to <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/10/federal-court-rules-alprs-are-mass-surveillance-eff-gets-disappointing-ruling">rule</a> that ALPRs are a “type of indiscriminate mass surveillance” and suppress evidence from a warrantless ALPR search. We hope the Wisconsin Supreme Court will agree.</p>
<p>Read the Wisconsin Supreme Court <a href="https://www.eff.org/document/wcc-v-milwaukee-petition">petition</a></p>
<p>Read the <a href="https://www.aclu-wi.org/press-releases/aclu-of-wisconsin-electronic-frontier-foundation-file-lawsuit-at-wisconsin-supreme-court-allege-warrantless-alpr-surveillance-violates-constitution/">press release</a></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field--name-field-related-cases field--type-node-reference field--label-above"><div class="field__label">Related Cases: </div><div class="field__items"><div class="field__item even"><a href="/cases/wisconsin-council-churches-v-milwaukee-racine-kenosha-green-bay">Wisconsin Council of Churches v. Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha & Green Bay</a></div></div></div>
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