The Four Signs law · Model bill 2026-01
The Surveillance Disclosure and Consent Act
A model bill formatted as a Minnesota House File, ready for any council, any statehouse, and the Congress. It bans no camera and blinds no investigator. It requires a sign at every approach to a watched road, a public registry of who is watching, and the rule that an unsigned camera’s records carry no weight in court, because a disclosure law with no penalty is a request.
Free to print, adapt, and carry up the steps of your city hall or statehouse to hand to your representatives · No signup required
The bill, section by section
What the bill does
Citation
The Surveillance Disclosure and Consent Act, referred to plainly as the Four Signs law.
Findings
Private camera networks record drivers suspected of nothing, share the data across state and federal databases, and never told the watched a word about it.
Definitions
A covered camera network is any automated camera system, plate readers included, linked to a state or national database or searchable by a government agency.
Mandatory disclosure signage
Operators post clear, legible signs facing all four directions of approach to a watched area, far enough back that a driver can still choose another road.
Required content
Each sign lists the operator's name, a notice that the vehicle and plate may be recorded and shared, and the network's public registry number.
Scope
A camera owned by a private company but searchable by a government agency is covered to the same extent as a camera the agency owns outright.
The right to choose the road
Disclosure exists so a citizen can accept the watching or turn and take a different route, and can make that choice knowingly.
Public registry
Every operator publishes a searchable registry of camera locations, owners, and every database the records feed.
Enforcement
An unsigned camera's records are inadmissible, the watched hold a private right of action, and the party doing the watching pays for the signs.
Severability and review
If a part falls the rest stands, and the whole chapter returns to open session for review every five years.
The PDF contains the full statutory text with line numbers, the enacting clause, and the effective date, in the format a revisor’s office expects.
Model letters
Letters to your representatives
The bill works as a city ordinance, a state law, or a national standard. The three run in that order of speed and the reverse order of reach. A council can act next month, a statehouse can act next session, and the Congress can make the sign a rule on every American road. Each letter below is written, addressed, and ready. Copy it, fill in the brackets, attach the PDF, and send it.
Your city council
Ask for a city ordinance
Councils approved most of these cameras through the consent agenda, so a single member can put the signs on the next agenda. Find your ward's member on your city's website. Find your council member.
Subject
Requesting a disclosure-signage ordinance for camera networks in our city
Letter
Dear Council Member [Name], I live in [your city], in [ward or district], and I am writing about the automated license plate readers operating on our streets. I am asking you to introduce a disclosure ordinance based on the Surveillance Disclosure and Consent Act, a model bill I have attached and which is available at [link]. The ordinance bans no camera and blinds no investigator. It requires a legible sign at every approach to a watched area, the operator's name on that sign, a public registry of camera locations and the databases they feed, and the plain rule that an unsigned camera's records carry no weight in court, because a disclosure rule with no penalty is a request. Our city approved these cameras through procurement, without a public vote, and the residents they record were never told. A sign is the smallest possible correction, and it is one Britain has required of its own far larger camera network for years. I would welcome the chance to speak with you or your staff about bringing this to the council. Respectfully, [Your name] [Your street address] [Your phone or email]
Your state legislature
Ask for a state law
The bill is drafted as a Minnesota House File and adapts to any statehouse by swapping the chapter number. In Minnesota, the legislature's own site will match your address to your representative and senator. Who represents me (Minnesota).
Subject
Requesting introduction of the Surveillance Disclosure and Consent Act
Letter
Dear Representative [Name], I am a constituent in [your city], and I am asking you to introduce the Surveillance Disclosure and Consent Act, a model bill formatted as a House File and ready for the revisor's office. The full text is attached and available at [link]. The bill requires disclosure signage at every approach to an automated camera network, a public registry of camera locations, and the inadmissibility of records collected without the signs. It removes no camera and stops no legitimate investigation. It restores the notice the citizens of this state were never given. These networks arrived through local procurement, they share our movements into national databases, and no ballot in this state ever carried the question. A federal court has already let a Fourth Amendment challenge against a comparable network proceed. The legislature can settle the matter the right way, in the open, with a hearing and a vote. I would be glad to provide the sources and the model text in any format your office prefers. Respectfully, [Your name] [Your address] [Your phone or email]
Your members of Congress
Ask for a national standard
The networks are national, the databases are national, and the disclosure standard should be too. Both chambers publish a directory that matches your address to your representative and senators. Find your representative.
Subject
Requesting a national disclosure standard for automated surveillance camera networks
Letter
Dear [Representative / Senator] [Name], I am a constituent in [your city and state], and I am writing about the private automated license plate reader networks now operating in more than five thousand American communities. Their records move across state lines and into federally searchable databases, and the drivers they record were never notified, consulted, or asked. I am asking you to sponsor a national disclosure standard modeled on the Surveillance Disclosure and Consent Act, attached and available at [link]. The bill requires visible signage at every approach to a watched area, a public registry of cameras and the databases they feed, and the rule that records collected without disclosure are inadmissible. It bans no camera and impedes no investigation. The United Kingdom already requires this notice of its own camera network, and the Supreme Court held in Carpenter v. United States that aggregated location tracking implicates the Fourth Amendment. A sign is the minimum a free country owes the people it watches. Respectfully, [Your name] [Your address] [Your phone or email]
The bill grew out of our reporting on the Flock camera network in Minnesota. Read the story for the evidence, the audits, and the councils already acting on it.
Read the story