Oakland Privacy has raised issues with the use of Automated License Plate Readers (ALPR) repeatedly in the past, most significantly to identify them as a tool for mass surveillance amid the rapid expansion of ALPR use in the last decade.
Over that same period, state officials have recognized the perils and pitfalls of ALPR use and have made various attempts to further regulate them, including conducting an audit which found law enforcement flouting current ALPR law and not protecting people’s privacy.
It comes as no surprise then that ALPR data continues to be misused and continues to put people at risk. Oakland Privacy Research Director Mike Katz-Lacabe recently filed records request with several California law enforcement agencies that requested audit logs for ALPR from Flock transparency portals.
The first response received was from the Riverside County Sheriff Office. While we would have preferred to wait to receive more responses before publicizing our findings, given what is currently happening with ICE raids in California, we decided that it was important to give the public the information we collected showing that California law enforcement agencies are sharing ALPR data with ICE, and other unknown entities for unknown reasons.
