In February, the deep distrust of widespread spying by the National Security Agency was pulsing through the Oregon Capitol.

The backlash against dragnet government surveillance was still spreading eight months after the program was first made public by whistle-blowing NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The revelations sparked calls to strengthen aging digital privacy laws. In February, Oregon lawmakers were close to passing a bill creating rules on how local police can use surveillance cameras that capture citizens’ license plates, but the bill fell short at the end of session.

While the issue has become dormant, at least publicly, a bipartisan group is working on ways to tighten control over the technology that’s been used in at least five police departments in Oregon.

“It’s definitely going to come back this session,” said Sen. Tim Knopp, R-Bend, who said he hopes to have a bill pre-filed and ready to go around December.

The bill that came close last session would have allowed the Portland Police Bureau and four other departments using the technology to continue taking the pictures and access the storage database that they say help track down stolen vehicles and people who have warrants.

The cameras automatically take pictures of all passing cars’ license plates before other software stores the plate numbers in a database.

Knopp and other senators, including outgoing Sen. Larry George, R-Sherwood, who sponsored the bill last session, promised last February that the issue wouldn’t get lost between sessions.

George is leaving his spot in the Senate and said in February that he would push a ballot measure in 2016 if lawmakers hadn’t passed a bill by then.

Knopp said a new law would add oversight to the program and would curb the amount of time police departments using the readers can store images.

“Sheriffs and chiefs of police have been talking about years, and we’ve been talking about months or days,” Knopp said.

Portland Police have said they equipped 16 of its 300 patrol cars with the surveillance technology and that automatic license plate readers have helped police retrieve stolen cars.

“The license plate readers are recovering 30 percent of our stolen cars,” officer Garrett Dow told a group of reporters in February as he showed off a patrol car equipped with two high-speed cameras below the police lights.

The Portland department retains images of thousands of plates for four years.

Sgt. Pete Simpson, spokesman for the Portland Police Bureau, didn’t respond to requests for comment on the department’s use of the license plate readers or the department’s self-imposed guidelines for storing data.

The cameras are equipped with infrared technology, Dow said in February, meaning they are capable of photographing license plates whether it’s light or dark.

Becky Straus, legislative director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, said the police cameras connect with software that converts the license plate numbers into a readable form in a sort of database that police retain.

Straus is working with the group of legislators in the interim to prepare the bill before the session convenes in February.

— Reporter: 406-589-4347,

tanderson@bendbulletin.com