Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe signed Executive Order 26-18 on September 16, 2026. It sets minimum rules for automated license plate readers: cameras that photograph passing vehicles and log where and when each plate was seen. Flock Safety’s network is the best-known example. Its cameras use AI to read plates and describe vehicles.
The order binds state agencies and any local law enforcement agency that receives state funding and uses the technology. The governor’s office encouraged other agencies to adopt the limits voluntarily. The order stays in force until it is amended, superseded, or replaced by legislation.
The core rules:
- Most plate and vehicle images must be permanently deleted within 30 days. Longer retention is allowed only for a specific, active investigation, a life-safety emergency such as a missing person, or a court order.
- The data belongs to the agency. Vendors may not access, sell, share, or commercialize Missouri data for any purpose other than law enforcement.
- Use is limited to criminal justice and lifesaving purposes.
- AI facial recognition may not be integrated with the readers.
Two provisions do most of the work. When an agency signs a plate reader contract, the vendor must certify in writing that images will be deleted on the 30-day schedule. And every search must record the user’s identity and an active case number or a specific law enforcement reason. Personal use, stalking, or unauthorized sharing triggers discipline, a criminal referral where appropriate, and a report to the Department of Public Safety for possible license revocation.
The order gave the department 10 days to publish best practices. It released a 10-page guide on September 30. According to KCTV and other coverage, the guide calls for a documented investigation behind every search, verification of alerts before officers act, and at least monthly audits of use. We could not locate the guide itself online, so those details rest on news reports. The department is also drafting legislation with police chiefs, sheriffs, and prosecutors. The order says that bill should add audit requirements, a standalone crime for misuse, and withholding of state grants from agencies that do not comply.
A retention limit is a promise. The vendor certification and the search log are how anyone checks it.
Why it matters
The numbers are specific to Missouri. The structure travels. The order puts its controls in three places a buyer already owns: the contract, the search log, and the disciplinary process. None of them requires new technology.
Recent plate reader problems elsewhere involved searches logged with no case number or no officer name. A logging rule closes that gap only if someone reads the log. That makes the audit schedule in the guidance as important as the 30-day limit.
An executive order can also be rescinded by the next governor. The order anticipates that. It asks for a bill.
Questions to ask about your own plate reader program
- Does the contract say the agency owns the data, and does it bar the vendor from using it for anything else?
- Has the vendor certified in writing that images are deleted on your schedule? Could you verify it?
- Does every search require a named user and a case number, or can officers type anything into a free-text field?
- Who reviews the search log, how often, and what happens to what they find?
- Which outside networks can your officers query, and under whose rules?
Missouri wrote the rules into the contract and the log. The next test is whether anyone audits them.
Sources
- Executive Order 26-18 (Missouri Secretary of State)
- Missouri issues new automated license plate reader guidance for law enforcement (KCTV, Oct. 1, 2026)
- Missouri governor orders guardrails on Flock cameras and automated license plate readers (KCUR, Sept. 16, 2026)
- Kehoe orders stricter limits on license plate readers (KCTV, Sept. 16, 2026)
- Missouri lawmakers anticipate work regulating Flock cameras after executive order (KCTV, Sept. 16, 2026)