Connecticut limits how public agencies use license plate reader records

Public agencies and their contracted vendors must follow limits on using, keeping, and sharing license plate reader records. These rules cover public agencies and their contracted vendors. Cameras used to enforce traffic, work zone, or school bus violations are excluded. Allowed agency uses cover weigh stations, agency vehicles and equipment, secure-area access, traffic studies, parking enforcement, state facility security, and vehicle tax compliance. Police may compare plates with specified law enforcement databases and plate watchlists. They may search records relevant to an active criminal investigation, an outstanding warrant, a missing or endangered person, or a stolen vehicle. Searches for active criminal investigations require reasonable suspicion and a record of the reason and any associated case number. An agency's facility threat list is limited to that agency and the state facilities for which it was made. Entries must concern potential threats supported by specified convictions or documented threatening conduct. Entries cannot rest solely on constitutionally protected speech, conduct, or association. Most records cannot be kept longer than 21 days, or a shorter period required by contract. Exceptions cover judicial warrants or court orders, court rules requiring evidence preservation, approved evidence in active criminal cases, and traffic studies using records stripped of identifying details, combined, or summarized. Records may also be kept to establish a repeat violation carrying a higher penalty. Highway fee records must be deleted within 30 days after collection of the fees, if such fees exist. The use, retention, sharing, and individual lawsuit rules apply on and after October 1, 2026.

People may seek court relief for constitutional violations, and the Attorney General may bring specified rights cases. These provisions cover people acting with government authority, including federal officers. Separate rules cover interference with photographing or filming officers. People may sue someone acting with government authority who deprives them of rights under the United States Constitution. Courts may award damages or orders to stop the harm. When the defendant is liable, courts must award reasonable legal fees and expenses unless special circumstances make that unjust. Defendants retain applicable defenses and legal protections from lawsuits. Federal officers receive the same protection as equivalent state officers. The state does not give up its own protection from suit. The Attorney General may investigate or bring cases over a practice, pattern, or policy that violates rights or interferes with them through threats, intimidation, or coercion. Cases involving government authority also cover physical obstruction. Courts may grant temporary relief and must schedule a hearing within five days, unless the parties agree to delay it. The Attorney General cannot pursue the same parties and facts while their case is pending before the state discrimination commission. Filing time limits still apply. Claims against state agencies and state officers acting officially are barred. Action against an individual state officer is allowed when the Attorney General finds that the state need not cover that officer's liability. Damages won go to injured people. These provisions took effect upon passage; the governor approved the act on May 4, 2026.

The Inspector General must investigate covered force incidents and deaths, and police employers must follow hiring and training restrictions. Covered officers include federal law enforcement officers and certified officers from the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes. Force rules also cover specified correction and parole officials. Investigations cover an officer's deadly force, force causing death, and deaths in physical custody. An electronic defense weapon does not count as deadly force for this investigation rule. Possible criminal deaths unrelated to an officer's force must be referred to prosecutors. Investigators have unrestricted access to covered scenes and evidence, including incidents involving only federal officers. They may seek a court order if access is blocked, with a hearing within five days unless the parties agree to delay it. The Inspector General may compel covered records and testimony at investigative questioning. The Inspector General must prosecute cases involving unjustified force or required intervention or reporting failures. Investigation reports address the incident, whether force was justified, and recommended agency action. Reports must be posted publicly within 48 hours after copies reach the designated officials. The Inspector General must investigate a relative's request about missing or late death notification when no next of kin received the required notice. Federal officers and their supervisors are excluded. Recommendations to the police certification council require intentional failure or reckless indifference. Otherwise, recommendations may go to the employing agency. Correctional custody deaths may also lead to reports recommending future action. These provisions took effect upon passage; the governor approved the act on May 4, 2026.

Officers generally must keep their faces visible and display a badge and name tag during covered public duties. The face rule covers officers enforcing state or federal laws while interacting with the public, including federal officers. Identification rules cover officers authorized to arrest during planned arrests or official public interactions. Face coverings are allowed for health protection, disease prevention, fire smoke, water rescue, hazardous agents, and approved undercover duties. Medical protection cannot mean merely hiding the officer's identity. Cold-weather coverings are allowed only during activities that do not require speaking with the public or someone being taken into custody. Bomb squads, motorcycle units, and specialized weapons teams may wear necessary protective gear. Badge and name tag exceptions cover approved undercover work, the state's model policy, court orders, and weather or traffic safety conditions that prevent display on outer clothing. Breaking the face covering rule is a class D misdemeanor, a criminal offense. Intentionally breaking the identification rule is also a class D misdemeanor. Officers cannot claim legal protection from civil liability for specified intentional harms, such as assault or false arrest, committed while knowingly and willfully violating the face covering rule. These provisions took effect upon passage; the governor approved the act on May 4, 2026.

Officers must meet special requirements before taking people into custody for civil offenses at covered locations. Civil offenses are matters that allow a defense in a civil proceeding. Covered sites include associated grounds and parking areas, plus specified courthouse walkways and sidewalks. Protected locations include schools and colleges, hospitals and urgent care centers, places of worship, social service facilities, emergency aid sites, and cemeteries. Listed child-serving locations are covered when children are present. At protected locations and state or municipal facilities, an officer must act officially and the person must be named in a warrant issued by a judge. State-owned property leased to a federal entity is excluded from the state facility definition. At courthouses, officers must act officially, notify a judicial marshal, and provide documents. The marshal must confirm a judicial warrant, a specified conviction, a class A or B felony conviction, or a possible match in a federal terrorism database before custody is allowed. Judicial marshals are exempt from this restriction. Civil offenses exclude state infractions, motor vehicle violations, the specified criminal arrests, contempt of court, judge-issued arrest orders, parole or probation warrant arrests, and specified emergency mental health commitments or arrests. Protected-site and state or municipal facility rules took effect October 1, 2026. Courthouse rules took effect upon passage.