According to documents disclosed from public records requests, dozens of California law enforcement agencies are illegally sharing license plate reader data with federal and out-of-state agencies.
California law enforcement agencies including the California Highway Patrol (CHP), Fresno County Sheriff, Newport Beach Police Department (PD), West Covina PD, Oakley PD, San Pablo PD, Pleasanton PD, and Pittsburg PD produced documents indicating that they were illegally sharing license plate reader data with federal agencies, including Customs and Border Protection.
The San Diego Sector Border Patrol was receiving license plate reader data from the Oakley PD, Pleasanton PD, San Pablo PD, Redding PD, CHP, Laguna Beach PD, Newport Beach PD and Pittsburg PD.
Documents indicated that the Solano County Sheriff, Laguna Beach PD, and Newport Beach PD are illegally sharing license plate reader date with Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ICE ERO).
The Freeway Safety Network, which has license plate readers installed on State Highway 4 and Interstate 80, was illegally sharing license plate reader data with IRS Criminal Investigations. The Bakersfield PD, CHP, Fresno County Sheriff, Inyo County Sheriff, Laguna Beach PD, Newport Beach PD, Solano County Sheriff, and West Covina PD also illegally share license plate reader data with IRS Criminal Investigations.
Other federal agencies that California law enforcement agencies were illegally sharing license plate reader data include the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, Drug Enforcement Administration, US Department of Justice, Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, Internal Revenue Service, US Forest Service, US Marshals Service, US Secret Service, and US Army Training and Doctrine Command (now the US Army Transformation and Training Command).
Sixteen California law enforcement agencies were illegally sharing Flock license plate reader data with the Western States Information Network (WSIN), a private organization serving Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington. It is one of six Regional Information Sharing Systems (RISS) networks. The agencies illegally sharing license plate reader data included the Alameda County Sheriff, Antioch PD, Bakersfield PD, Bell PD, Burbank PD, Calistoga PD, Fairfield PD, Hollister PD, Lincoln PD, Lodi PD, Manteca PD, Menifee PD, Merced County Sheriff, Redwood City PD, Rio Vista PD, and Tracy PD. The WSIN does not appear to meet the definition of a California agency under SB34. There are likely additional agencies illegally sharing license plate reader data with WSIN which do have a “transparency” portal or from whom we did not request public records.
According to a recent disclosure of illegal license plate reader data sharing published in the San Francisco Chronicle, “Based on NCRIC’s investigation, SFPD said WSIN analysts conducted the improper searches at the request of other agencies.” Unlike the indirect access in San Francisco, WSIN has direct access to the license plate reader data of the 16 agencies listed above.
The El Cajon PD, Fresno County Sheriff, Mono County Sheriff, Newport Beach PD, and West Covina PD were illegally sharing license plate reader data with the Rocky Mountain Information Network (RMIN), another region of RISS. As with WSIN, the RMIN does not appear to meet the definition of a California agency under SB34.
This appears to be part of a pattern of California law enforcement agencies illegally sharing license plate reader data with federal and out-of-state agencies, which was banned in 2016 by SB34. The El Cajon PD is currently being sued by the California Department of Justice for illegally sharing license plate reader data with out-of-state agencies. Previous public records requests revealed illegal sharing of license plate reader with federal and out-of-state agencies by UC Merced Police and Modesto Police.
Despite documents showing that some agencies were sharing license plate reader data with federal and out-of-state agencies, we were unable to confirm that all of those agencies were actually using Motorola Solutions license plate readers. These agencies included the Ventura County District Attorney and the Sacramento County District Attorney, which have a subscription to share license plate reader data from other agencies via Motorola Solutions, but have not purchased license plate readers that would supply license plate reader data to other agencies.
Source documents:
- Alameda County Sheriff Shared Networks
- California Highway Patrol Agency Data Sharing Report
- Freeway Safety Network Agency Data Sharing Report
- Fresno County Sheriff Agency Data Sharing Report
- Laguna Beach PD Agency Data Sharing Report
- Newport Beach PD Agency Data Sharing Report
- Oakley PD Agency Data Sharing Report
- Pittsburg PD Agency Data Sharing Report
- Pleasanton PD Agency Data Sharing Report
- San Pablo PD Agency Data Sharing Report
- Solano County Sheriff Agency Data Sharing Report
- West Covina PD Agency Data Sharing Report