, Iowa —

Two Iowa organizations are sounding alarms on the use of automatic license plate readers, or ALPRs, in their state.

The ACLU of Iowa is calling ALPRs a "concerning" form of government surveillance .

ALPRs are cameras used by law enforcement to read license plates on all passing vehicles.

"They record plate numbers, dates, times and locations. And this creates a record of where a vehicle was at a specific moment," said ACLU of Iowa legal director Rita Bettis Austen.

Law enforcement typically uses this database for things like stolen cars, amber alerts, or homicides, but the ACLU says in Iowa, officers don't need warrants to pull information.

They're worried this could lead to misuse, citing nationwide cases where police officers have used the database to stalk ex-wives and

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