Wisconsin License Plate Reader Laws (2026)

Wisconsin has no license plate reader statute. We searched the state's current statutes and read the tables of contents of the chapters where such a rule would sit, and nothing names or regulates plate readers. Four 2025-26 bills that touched the subject failed on March 23, 2026, so none is law.

Information reviewed September 30, 2026.

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

Does Wisconsin have a license plate reader law?

No. We found no enacted Wisconsin statute that addresses automated license plate readers. A full-text search of the Wisconsin Legislature's statutes collection for "license plate reader," "plate reader," "automated license plate" and "license plate recognition" returned no statute results. Searched without the statutes filter, the same phrases surface only 2025 bill texts, legislative indexes, journals, hearing files and a 2020 Department of Justice public notice.

A search is only a lead, so we also opened the tables of contents for the chapters where a plate reader rule would most likely appear, including chapters 86, 165, 341, 346 and 968, and found no plate reader section in them. The sections the failed bills would have created do not exist: the chapter 86 table of contents lists ss. 86.10, 86.105 and 86.11 with no s. 86.107, and chapter 968 has no s. 968.376.

The statute book we checked was current. The chapter 968 PDF states that the statutes were updated through 2025 Wis. Act 247 and filed orders in effect on September 4, 2026. A search of the 2025 Acts for "plate reader" found no Act on the subject. We did not enumerate every state records-retention schedule or every administrative code chapter, so this page makes no statement about those.

What happened to the 2025-26 Wisconsin plate reader bills?

All four died on March 23, 2026, when the bills were reported as "Failed to pass pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution 1." None was enacted and none has an Act number.

• 2025 AB 576 was introduced October 24, 2025. It would have banned automatic registration plate readers with exceptions for parking facilities, enclosed access-controlled areas and weigh stations, limited sharing and retention (a 90-day maximum), and required a warrant for law enforcement use of private security camera or plate reader data, with a fine of up to $10,000.
• 2025 AB 883 was introduced January 16, 2026. It would have created only the ban, with the same three exceptions and a 90-day retention limit, and no warrant section or penalty.
• 2025 AB 300 and SB 299 went the other way. They would have created a Department of Justice grant program to help law enforcement agencies buy plate reader systems, with at least 50 percent for rural agencies. Their text contained no use, retention or audit rules.

Because these bills failed, what they proposed is not Wisconsin law. A new session convenes in January 2027, and we found no 2027-28 plate reader bill as of September 30, 2026. News reports in September 2026 described Wisconsin officials discussing possible legislation; those are reported plans, not law.

Do any other Wisconsin statutes reach plate reader data?

Two sections come up in searches, and neither regulates plate readers. A third, Wis. Stat. 940.315, makes it a crime to place a GPS device on another person's vehicle without consent, but it covers GPS devices, not cameras, and does not apply to law enforcement officers acting in their official capacity.

Wis. Stat. 968.373. This section governs warrants to identify or track a communications device. It defines that term as including "any wireless or mobile device that transmits wire or electronic communications." Its text does not mention vehicles or registration plates, so it does not reach plate reader data.

Wis. Stat. 757.07. Section 757.07(1)(g)1.f. includes a license plate number of a vehicle owned, leased or regularly used by a judicial officer or an immediate family member in protected personal information, and s. 757.07(2) bars a government agency from publicly posting or displaying it after a written request. Once the information is removed, s. 757.07(2)(a) also exempts it from public records inspection, and s. 757.07(3)(a) bars a data broker from knowingly selling or otherwise making available for consideration a judicial officer's personal information after a written request. None of these provisions limits government collection or retention of plate reads.

Does Wisconsin limit sharing plate data for immigration enforcement?

We found no Wisconsin statute that does. Our statute searches for "immigration enforcement," "surveillance technology," "facial recognition" and "consumer data" returned no relevant hits, and "federal immigration" appears only in unrelated chapters. Apart from s. 757.07, which protects judicial officers' plate numbers from public posting and data-broker sale on written request, we did not find a statute treating a plate number as protected personal data.

Two sets of bills that might have touched the issue failed on March 23, 2026: 2025 AB 444 and SB 484, which concerned limits on using state and local facilities to detain people on immigration status, and 2025 AB 172 and SB 166, a consumer data protection bill. AB 172 was recommended for passage by an Assembly committee on January 30, 2026 (10 ayes, 0 noes) before it failed. Neither is law, and Wisconsin has no comprehensive consumer data privacy act. A limit could exist in an agency policy or contract we did not see, so this is a statement about statutes only.

Can you request Wisconsin plate reader records?

The Public Records Law applies. Wis. Stat. 19.31 says ss. 19.32 to 19.37 are to be "construed in every instance with a presumption of complete public access," and s. 19.35(1)(a) gives a requester a right to inspect a record except as provided by law.

We found no plate reader exemption in statute. The relevant exemptions are general. Under s. 19.36, a record exempted by state or federal law is exempt, and the law enforcement record exemption in s. 19.36(2) applies where federal law or aid conditions require withholding. Section 19.35(1)(am)1. removes an individual's separate right to see personal information about themselves for records collected in connection with a complaint, investigation or other circumstances that may lead to an enforcement action; the general right of inspection under s. 19.35(1)(a) still applies. None of the sources we opened says whether plate reads, audit logs or vendor contracts fall within an exemption, and we found no attorney general opinion, Department of Justice guide entry or appellate decision on plate reader records. That is not proof that none exists. A denial or release would turn on the specific record and the custodian's reasons.

Has a Wisconsin court ruled on plate readers?

We found no Wisconsin appellate decision on plate reader data, and Wisconsin has no plate reader statute to interpret. The Fourth Amendment applies as general law, but we did not analyze Article I, section 11 of the Wisconsin Constitution from a source we opened.

One state-court case is pending, and this page describes only what was filed. The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty announced on September 10, 2026 that it filed a complaint in Waukesha County Circuit Court for NOCAMS Muskego, Inc., Citizens Defending Liberty and a resident against the City of Muskego, Waukesha County and other local governments (Oconomowoc, New Berlin, Mukwonago, Waukesha, Delafield, Hartland, Brookfield, Menomonee Falls, Elm Grove and Pewaukee). The summons and complaint prints the case number only as "26-CV," and we have not verified a full case number.

According to the complaint, the plaintiffs ask for a declaration that querying the Flock Location Database "without a warrant, or an applicable warrant exception, violates the Fourth Amendment," a permanent injunction, damages and fees, under state declaratory judgment and injunction statutes and 42 U.S.C. 1983. The complaint also cites the 2026 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Chatrie v. United States; we did not open that opinion and do not describe its holding here. These are a party's allegations and requests. The defendants' responses and any ruling are not in the sources we reviewed, and the relief requested in the complaint does not include removing the cameras.

Which Wisconsin agencies have used plate readers?

The deployment records below come from our audited list of news and official sources. The list is not complete, and a status reflects the date of the source, not necessarily today's situation.

News reports indicate some of these shutdowns take effect later than the vote: Racine's system was expected to go dark about 30 days after its September 15 vote, and the Sheboygan contract and Waukesha funding were reported to end at year end. Check the current status with the agency. "Ended" means the Flock arrangement ended, not necessarily all plate reader use: news reports say the Dane County Board voted in June 2026 to restore $80,000 for the Sheriff's Office to buy a replacement plate reader system, and the office was reviewing vendor proposals in September 2026.

Milwaukee's restrictions are executive policy, not law. As reported by WisPolitics in a republished August 31, 2026 statement, the mayor said the program continues with restrictions: "Only supervisors will be allowed to access Flock camera systems," with use limited to Part I crimes, critical missing persons, drug trafficking organization investigations and abductions, and said the Fire and Police Commission's executive director had agreed to semiannual independent audits of the department's Flock use. We did not open a Milwaukee Police Department standard operating procedure, so we make no statement about its terms.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department states on its ALPR page that "only UWPD squad dashboard cameras utilize ALPR technology," and that access is restricted to UWPD personnel and logged and audited. The page does not state a retention period.

How long can Wisconsin agencies keep plate reader data?

No Wisconsin statute we found sets a plate reader retention period. Wisconsin's general public-records retention law may also apply: Wis. Stat. 19.21(4)(b) and (5)(c) bar cities, villages, towns and counties from destroying most public records in under 7 years unless another statute sets a specific period or the Public Records Board fixes a shorter one, and agency policies and vendor contracts set their own terms. We did not determine which records schedule, if any, covers plate reads. We did not verify any retention figure against an official source, so we do not state one. AB 576 proposed a 90-day cap; it failed.

How can you check a local Wisconsin system?

Start with the agency's written policy and its city council or county board records, which is where the recent Wisconsin decisions above were made. A public records request to the police department or sheriff's office can ask for the policy, the contract and any audit or access logs, but the agency decides what to release under chapter 19. Our guide to what Flock cameras are explains what these systems capture, and Are Flock cameras legal? compares how other states handle it.

Last updated: September 30, 2026. This page reflects the statutes and records described above as we reviewed them; it is general legal information, not legal advice.

Frequently Asked Questions

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

We found no Wisconsin statute that prohibits, authorizes or regulates plate readers. The finding rests on a full-text search of the statutes collection with zero hits, opened tables of contents, and statute PDFs current through 2025 Wis. Act 247 as of September 4, 2026.

Did Wisconsin pass a license plate reader bill in 2026?

No. AB 576, AB 883, AB 300 and SB 299 each failed to pass pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution 1 on March 23, 2026. None is law.

Does Wisconsin limit sharing plate data with immigration authorities?

We found no Wisconsin statute that does. AB 444, SB 484, AB 172 and SB 166 also failed on March 23, 2026. An agency policy or contract we did not review could differ.

Can I request Wisconsin plate reader records?

The Public Records Law, including ss. 19.31 and 19.35, applies and presumes complete access. We found no plate reader exemption in statute, and whether a particular record is released depends on the record and the agency's reasons.

What is the NOCAMS Muskego lawsuit?

It is a complaint filed in Waukesha County Circuit Court in September 2026 against Waukesha County and several municipalities. It contains allegations and requests for relief only, and no court has ruled on it.

Does Wisconsin limit how long police keep plate reader data?

We found no statute setting a retention period. General public-records retention law (Wis. Stat. 19.21) may apply alongside agency policy and contracts; we did not determine which records schedule covers plate reads or verify any specific figure.