ACLU of Maine Defeats Legislation to Create Mass Surveillance on Maine Turnpike

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]This session we worked to defeat a bill LD1457.

[00:00:04]The bill itself proposed a pilot program where the main turnpike authority would have been allowed to place three speed cameras on the turnpike over the next 3 years as an exception to Maine's current general prohibition on automated traffic enforcement. And we oppose any technology that will lead to the government acquiring data about our movements. While these cameras capture a moment in time, when these images are aggregated together, they can show a really telling picture of a person's life, which doctor they go to see, where they worship, what protests they might be attending. And we had so many great conversations with legislators throughout the session, and then received overwhelming bipartisan support in defeating this bill. And I know you might be thinking, we've defeated the speed cameras in the 132nd legislature, but what is going on with flock in the state of Maine? We haven't seen anything at the state level yet. But I can tell you for sure in towns and cities across Maine, this technology is being marketed aggressively to police departments, mostly in processes processes that receive no public input intentionally.

[00:01:10]We at the ACLU of Maine have been looking into this issue and you can learn more about what our Freedom of Access Act requests have revealed on our website.