General Ordinance D‑FY27‑003 · Bridgewater, Massachusetts
Your drive is your business.
Not anti‑police. Anti‑dragnet.
What's happening
Automated license plate readers photograph every passing vehicle and convert the plate, place, date, and time into a searchable record. Ordinance D‑FY27‑003 would end the Town's use of them.
Councilor Sean Kennedy introduced it on August 11, 2026. It passed first reading the same night and was referred to the Rules & Procedures Committee by voice vote. Committee is the decisive stage: it is where ordinances advance, get amended, or quietly stall. No hearing date has been set.
Why it matters
The ordinance's own explanation puts the concern plainly:
"A single observation on a public road may reveal little, but combining records from many cameras and communities can create a detailed history of a vehicle's movements."
Those records are collected without notice or meaningful choice, and they live on privately operated platforms where access, retention, and sharing depend on vendor systems and contracts rather than on the Town.
It preserves ordinary police work. Section 5 keeps manual plate checks tied to a specific incident or call for service, information lawfully provided in a particular investigation, recordings lawfully obtained, body‑worn cameras without automated plate recognition, and anything required by law or court order. What ends is routine, automated access to a searchable surveillance database.
It puts the facts on the record. Within 45 days of taking effect, the Town Manager must report publicly on every ALPR system the Town possesses or can access, every related grant, contract, subscription, and data‑sharing agreement, and the status of discontinuation and data deletion.
Three ways to help
5 minutes
Send one email.
Write to the Rules & Procedures Committee and to your own district councilor. Short, personal, your street name in the first line. Templates are on the site.
One evening
Show up.
Attend the committee meeting when the ordinance is taken up. You do not have to say a word. A full room is a message by itself.
Two minutes
Speak.
Public comment is the strongest signal a resident can send. Name, street, the case, thank you. A ready-to-read script is on the site.
Three phrases that win the argument
Mosaic tracking
One reading reveals little. Thousands, combined over time and across towns, map your commute, your doctor, your church, your family.
A private company owns the data
Not our police department. Not our town. Access, retention, and sharing are set by vendor systems and contracts.
Deleting locally does not delete the copies
A short local retention window does not control duplicates already shared with vendors, other agencies, or broader networks.
Who decides next · Rules & Procedures Committee
- Sean Kennedy District 3, Committee Chair skennedy@bridgewaterma.org
- Timothy Trocchio District 1 ttrocchio@bridgewaterma.org
- Michaela Spagone Councilor-At-Large mjspagone@bridgewaterma.org
Councilor Kennedy introduced the ordinance and chairs this committee. Thank him. All nine councilors vote at second reading; the full directory is on the site.
Full ordinance text: August 11, 2026 Town Council agenda packet, pages 145–149. Councilor contacts from the Town's official website, verified August 25, 2026. Prepared by Bridgewater residents in support of D‑FY27‑003. Not affiliated with the Town of Bridgewater or the Bridgewater Town Council. ourtowndecides.org