Residents press Clayton council for review of license-plate camera data and privacy safeguards

During public comment, residents urged the council to scrutinize automated license-plate reader systems and the companies that operate them. Micah Patterson warned that connected plate-reading systems aggregate location data across wide areas and argued for guardrails such as audits or requiring a warrant before law-enforcement access to data.

Patterson said similar geolocation rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court have constrained government collection of continuous location data; he voiced hope for judicial guardrails in this area. "By compiling all that information over hundreds of miles in different areas, you could effectively find and track the movements of every single person that's going on," Patterson said. Nicholas Picrello echoed privacy concerns, noting some systems are owned by entities outside the United States and pointing to camera placements near the hospital on Veteran Parkway and near the Neuse River Trail at Covered Bridge Road. "We're giving up freedoms in exchange for safety," Picrello said, and asked the council to look more closely into how cameras are used and where they are placed.

The comments were received during public comment; no formal policy, ordinance or vote on surveillance technology was taken at the meeting.