Arkansas License Plate Reader Laws (2026)

Arkansas has a specific license plate reader statute, the Automatic License Plate Reader System Act, and its baseline is a prohibition. Under Ark. Code § 12-12-1803, as amended by Act 668 of 2025, it is "unlawful for an individual, partnership, corporation, limited liability company, association, or the State of Arkansas, its agencies, and political subdivisions to use an automatic license plate reader system" except for the uses the statute lists. Act 668 added private landowners, leaseholders and commercial businesses to that list and split the existing 150-day retention cap into two: 60 days for those private users and 150 days for other eligible entities.

Information reviewed September 30, 2026.

For related pages, see the Arkansas entry in the state comparison, the ALPR laws hub, Are Flock cameras legal?, What are Flock cameras?, and our Arkansas surveillance camera laws guide.

Is there an Arkansas law on license plate readers?

Yes. The Automatic License Plate Reader System Act is codified at Ark. Code Title 12, Chapter 12, Subchapter 18 (§§ 12-12-1801 to -1808). Act 668 of the 2025 Regular Session (SB 446) amended §§ 12-12-1802 to -1805 and -1807. The Governor approved it on April 16, 2025. It has no emergency clause or specified effective date, so it took effect on August 5, 2025, the date Attorney General Opinion No. 2025-032 gives for such acts of the 2025 Regular Session.

The bill text uses strike-through and underlining, so the current wording depends on reading what was deleted as well as what was added. This page reflects the enrolled text of Act 668. Act 668 did not amend sections 1806 and 1808, so this page describes them as enacted by Act 1491 of 2013.

Who may use a plate reader in Arkansas?

Section 12-12-1803(b) lists the permitted uses. As amended by Act 668, they are:

1. A law enforcement agency comparing captured plate data with OMV, ACIC and NCIC records, an investigation database and the FBI, "for any lawful purpose."
2. Parking enforcement.
3. Access control in secured areas.
4. New in Act 668: a private landowner, private leaseholder or commercial business using a system for public safety, crime deterrence and monitoring access to its own property, including ingress and egress on a private road.
5. The Arkansas Highway Police, part of the Arkansas Department of Transportation, verifying commercial vehicles at weigh stations. This item was renumbered from the former fourth item.

Because the baseline is a prohibition, the statute authorizes only the listed uses.

How long can Arkansas keep license plate reader data?

Section 12-12-1804(a) now sets a tiered cap. Captured plate data "shall not be preserved for more than" 60 days by a private landowner, private leaseholder or commercial business, or 150 days by all other eligible entities.

There is an investigation exception in subsection (b). Data that law enforcement obtained under the comparison use may be retained as part of an ongoing investigation, and must be destroyed at the conclusion of an investigation that results in no charges or at the conclusion of any criminal action in the matter.

Act 668 also struck words from subsection (a). The enrolled bill shows the deleted phrase "used or shared for any other purpose and shall not be," which older text used to bar using or sharing plate data for any purpose outside the permitted uses. Subsection (a) is now a retention cap. Purpose limits now come from the permitted-use list in § 12-12-1803 and from the sharing and sale rules in § 12-12-1804. This page does not describe a general "no other purpose" clause in subsection (a) as current law.

Who can the data be shared with?

Section 12-12-1804 addresses sharing and sale:

• A governmental entity authorized under § 12-12-1803(b) "shall not sell, trade, or exchange captured plate data for any purpose."
• Data from the law-enforcement comparison use that shows evidence of an offense may be shared with other law enforcement agencies.
• A government entity may compel data from a parking, secured-area or private user only by valid subpoena.
• Private users may not sell, trade or exchange data for any commercial purpose. The exception is sharing with a contract third-party processor that provides asset-protection analytics, is bound to no other use, and is subject to a 60-day retention cap.
• A governmental entity using a system for the law-enforcement comparison use must update the captured plate data every 24 hours if updates are available.

What audits and reports does Arkansas require?

Under § 12-12-1805, government-type users (law enforcement, parking, secured-area and Highway Police users) must compile statistics every six months and preserve them for 18 months. The statistics cover plates scanned, lists checked, confirmed matches, matches that did not correlate to an alert, and matches that led to arrest and prosecution. These users must also adopt and publish rules and policies on obtaining, retaining and destroying data, including retention beyond 150 days.

Private users compile six-month counts of scans and confirmed matches and give them to the Legislative Council on request of its chairs.

The statute ties enforcement to the policy requirement: "Failure to comply with subdivision (a)(3)(A) of this section shall be grounds for a court of competent jurisdiction to exclude any evidence obtained under this subchapter."

What happens when someone violates the Arkansas ALPR law?

Three mechanisms appear in the sources we read.

Attorney General enforcement. Act 668 added § 12-12-1807(c): "The Attorney General may bring an action to enforce a violation of this subchapter under the Deceptive Trade Practices Act, § 4-88-101 et seq."

Private civil action. Section 12-12-1807(a) and (b), enacted by Act 1491 of 2013 and not amended by Act 668, let any person claiming that a violation injured his or her business, person or reputation sue for actual damages or $1,000 liquidated damages, whichever is greater, and other costs of litigation. Act 668 added only subsection (c).

Evidence exclusion. Beyond the exclusion for an unpublished retention policy described above, § 12-12-1806 says captured plate data and evidence derived from it shall not be received in evidence in a proceeding "if the disclosure of that information would be in violation of this subchapter." Act 668 did not amend section 1806.

Can you get Arkansas plate reader data through a public records request?

Section 12-12-1808(a) limits disclosure of captured plate data to the registered owner, with the owner's written consent, or as the federal Driver's Privacy Protection Act permits, and it treats the practice and usage statistics as a public record under the Freedom of Information Act. That subsection cross-references § 12-12-1806 for the statistics, which looks like a stale numbering reference to § 12-12-1805; the 2013 enacted text reads that way. Section 12-12-1808(b) adds that once a valid, outstanding protection order is presented to the agency, protecting the driver of a vehicle registered jointly with, or solely in the name of, the person the order was issued against, captured plate data may not be disclosed except as the result of a match under a permitted use.

We found no Arkansas Attorney General opinion or court decision on FOIA access to camera locations, hot lists or audit logs. If you plan to request records, check the current official code and ask the agency for the policies and statistics that § 12-12-1805 requires it to compile and publish.

What agency rules apply?

The Arkansas State Police has license plate reader rules at Code of Arkansas Rules, Title 12, Chapter V, Part 24, promulgated under § 12-12-1805. The codification notes say the rules "shall be effective on or after July 1, 2024." Only those notes were available online when we checked, so we did not read the rule text.

The Arkansas Highway Police have a separate set of License Plate Reader Rules (12 CAR Part 150). The ARDOT document we found is marked as a draft and proposed rulemaking. It would limit use to legitimate law enforcement purposes, require alerts to be visually verified before a stop, and store data on the server for no more than 150 days. The State Highway Commission gave notice of proposed rulemaking with a comment period from April 5 to May 14, 2026 and a hearing on May 13, 2026. The rules were then placed before the Legislative Council's Administrative Rules Subcommittee on August 20, 2026, whose agenda lists the proposed effective date as pending legislative review and approval. We found no record of final adoption, so treat them as proposed.

What have Arkansas courts said?

We found no Arkansas Supreme Court or Court of Appeals opinion on license plate readers. That is a limit of the web searches we ran, not proof that none exists. In federal court, Digital Recognition Network, Inc. v. Hutchinson, 803 F.3d 952 (8th Cir. 2015), involved a First Amendment challenge to the Act by license plate reader companies. The Eighth Circuit affirmed dismissal because the companies lacked standing to sue the Governor and Attorney General, since the Act was then enforced only through private damages suits. The court did not decide whether the Act is constitutional, and Act 668 later gave the Attorney General an enforcement role.

Where are plate readers reported in Arkansas?

The list below is not complete. An August 15, 2026 Arkansas Online report describes the Little Rock Police Department and the North Little Rock Police Department as using license plate reader systems.

How can I check my local system?

Start with who operates it. Under Arkansas law a private landowner or business is subject to the 60-day cap and the ban on commercial sale, while a police department is subject to the 150-day cap and the six-month statistics and published-policy duties. You can ask an agency for its published retention policy and its most recent six-month statistics, and you can ask a private operator how long it keeps data and whether it shares it with a processor. For the technology itself, see What are Flock cameras?.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it legal to use a license plate reader in Arkansas?

Only for the purposes listed in Ark. Code § 12-12-1803(b). The statute makes any other use unlawful for individuals, businesses and the State and its subdivisions.

Can a private business or homeowner use a plate reader in Arkansas?

Act 668 of 2025 added a private-property use. A private landowner, leaseholder or commercial business may use a system for public safety, crime deterrence and monitoring access to its own property, with a 60-day retention cap and a ban on selling the data for a commercial purpose.

How long can Arkansas police keep license plate reader data?

The cap for eligible entities other than private users is 150 days. Data obtained by law enforcement in the comparison use may be retained as part of an ongoing investigation, and must be destroyed when an investigation ends with no charges or when a criminal action concludes.

Can police sell plate reader data in Arkansas?

No. A governmental entity may not sell, trade or exchange captured plate data for any purpose. Data showing evidence of an offense may be shared with other law enforcement agencies.

Who enforces the Arkansas plate reader law?

Act 668 lets the Attorney General enforce the subchapter under the Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Section 12-12-1807 also provides a private action for actual damages or $1,000 liquidated damages, whichever is greater.

Are the Arkansas Highway Police plate reader rules in effect?

We could not confirm it. The rules we found are marked as a draft, the State Highway Commission gave notice of a comment period and hearing in April and May 2026, and the rules went before a Legislative Council subcommittee on August 20, 2026 with the effective date listed as pending legislative review and approval. We found no record of final adoption.