If police cameras capture an image of your car’s license plate, how long should they be able to keep the information? Days? Months? Years?

That’s one of the issues Oregon lawmakers will try to settle when they meet for their 2015 legislative session early next year.

When legislators considered the subject during their short 2014 session, Senate Bill 1522 would have set different limits depending on the purpose of the collection, but the bill didn’t get out of committee. Now, a bipartisan group, including Sen. Tim Knopp, R-Bend, is working to find agreement for a new effort.

Like so many issues involving technology, this one pits legitimate policing interests against personal privacy. It’s a balancing act in which the details make all the difference.

In addition to how long the information can be retained, legislators must consider who can access it and for what purposes, among other issues. SB1522, for example, would have permitted the data to be used to enforce parking or traffic violations, to identify a vehicle involved in a crime, or to help find a person for whom there is an outstanding warrant, among others.

At least five Oregon police departments have used the technology, including Portland, which retains it for four years. Sixteen of the department’s 300 patrol cars have surveillance equipment that automatically reads license plates, which is credited with helping find stolen cars.

Legislation also needs to address whether private companies or individuals can gain access to the information. That might allow, for example, a husband or wife to track each other’s movements. Over time, the data could reveal much about anindividuals’ lives, showing when and where they shop, worship, recreate or seek medical care.

Police license-plate readers are but one of many such ways modern technology can invade our privacy. Solving this issue in a way that offers maximum protection to individuals without imperiling police operations is just a small piece of a much larger modern dilemma.

No doubt law enforcement will do a thorough job of informing lawmakers of the benefits of surveillance and retention of data. We urge legislators to be sure privacy rights get sufficient consideration, and to remember that somehow our communities have survived and thrived without this data in the past.

Lawmakers should limit the uses of this data and require its destruction sooner rather than later.