The Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Interim Committee heard arguments on Oct. 21, 2026, regarding requirements for warrants during digital tracking and data searches. According to a report presented during that meeting, federal courts have established that tracking movements requires a warrant.
The report cited several federal court cases to illustrate the need for warrants in digital surveillance. These include Jones (2012), which required a warrant for attaching a GPS tracker to a car for 28 days; Carpenter (2018), which required a warrant for seven days of cell site location information; and more recent cases, Chatrie (2026) and Kyle (2026), which required warrants for two hours of GPS location information and 30 days of ALPR data, respectively.
The presentation also addressed data sharing and potential abuse involving Automated License Plate Readers (ALP
Rs). In Weber County, 96% of searches of network-connected ALP
Rs were conducted from outside Utah. The report noted that 3,343 agencies had access to 10 Weber County cameras. Additionally, the IJ Database of ALPR Abuse recorded 285 abuse incidents, including 41 million images in 29 days in Norfolk, Va.
The report concluded by suggesting actions for Utah, including requiring a warrant for such data, keeping Utah data within the state, and deleting data after one week.
