Green Bay is one of four Wisconsin cities named in a new legal challenge seeking to require law enforcement to obtain a warrant before retroactively searching data collected by automatic license plate readers.The ACLU of Wiscons in and Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a petition with the Wisconsin Supreme Court on behalf of the Wisconsin Council of Churches and an individual Green Bay pastor.The petition argues that retroactive searches of data collected through automatic license plate reader, or ALPR, networks constitute a search under the Wisconsin Constitution and therefore require a warrant or a recognized exception to the warrant requirement.Green Bay, Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha are named in the petition. According to the ACLU, each city operates ALPR systems and conducts searches using data collected by them.ALPR systems use cameras to photograph license plates and collect information about passing vehicles. According to the petitioners, those images can be stamped with a date and time, uploaded to a database and searched later by law enforcement.The groups argue that because the technology can collect information from vehicles regardless of whether they are connected to a crime, searching the accumulated data can reveal details about a person's movements over time."Thousands of automatic license plate readers stationed across Wisconsin have created a mass surveillance machine constantly tracking, logging, and sharing information about us without a warrant," ACLU of Wisconsin staff attorney Wes Haslam said in a statement.The Wisconsin Council of Churches represents more than 2,000 congregations across the state. The organization argues that ALPR data could reveal when people visit churches for potentially sensitive or confidential services."The members of the Wisconsin Council of Churches numbering more than 2000 congregations and over a million individuals have a reasonable expectation of privacy in how they practice their religious beliefs and in many of the services they seek at our member churches," Executive Director Dr. Kerri Parker said in a statement.The lawsuit asks the Wisconsin Supreme Court to require a judicial warrant for law enforcement to conduct retroactive searches of ALPR network data.The petitioners also called on Wisconsin municipalities to strengthen oversight of surveillance technology and reconsider their contracts with ALPR companies.This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy. ...read more read less