Colorado needs one privacy standard

Drive I-70 from Summit County over Vail Pass, through Eagle and Garfield counties, past Glenwood Springs and Rifle, and into Mesa County and Grand Junction. It feels like one continuous stretch of highway.

But along that drive, different jurisdictions are using license plate reader cameras that track vehicles as they pass.

And it’s not just towns along I-70.

Across the Western Slope, communities are installing or debating these systems. Glenwood Springs operates license plate readers and recently restricted outside access after public concern. Mesa County and the Grand Junction area have deployed them. Aspen has approved installations. Durango uses the technology as well.

Each town sets its own rules.

Some limit how the data is shared. Some focus on how long it’s stored. Others have had little public debate at all. The technology may be the same, but the policies are not.

That creates a patchwork.

You can drive across several counties in one afternoon. In each place, cameras may be tracking your plate number, along with the time and location. Over weeks and months, that builds a searchable record of travel patterns.

Most people are not thinking about databases when they drive to work, take their kids to school, or head to a doctor’s appointment. They just assume they are moving through their day.

People on the right don’t like the idea of government overstepping or keeping tabs on them. People on the left worry about privacy and surveillance going too far. Both sides agree that the government shouldn’t be able to track where regular people go every day without clear limits.

The question isn’t whether police can investigate crimes. It’s whether historical location data should sit in large databases without clear statewide guardrails.

This is why Voces Unidas supports SB26-070.

This bill would create one standard on data privacy across Colorado. It limits when stored license plate data can be accessed, restricts sharing beyond jurisdiction, and requires stronger oversight. Investigations can still happen. But mass tracking without limits would not be the default.

From I-70 to mountain towns off the corridor and communities across the state, the same rules should apply.

SB26-070 is part of a larger package of bills this session aimed at protecting constitutional rights and rebuilding trust in law enforcement, including proposals to increase accountability for data sharing, set standards and oversight for detention centers, restrict enforcement actions around sensitive places, and require visible identification while interacting with the public.

These basic principles matches what we keep hearing in our Colorado Latino Agenda research initiative, including strong opposition to racial profiling and to enforcement agents concealing their identity.

Click here to follow our work during the 2026 legislative session.