Update: November 12th is the day Berkeley’s automated license plate reader policy hits the council.
Berkeleyside: Berkeley Is Being Bamboozled
Update: On September 4, 2019, Berkeley’s Police Review Commission, which is empowered by the surveillance ordinance to provide recommendations regarding surveillance equipment usage polices, passed on the proposed license plate reader policy with two caveats – a) that the policy represented an expansion of scope beyond parking enforcement purposes and b) that the usage clause to “canvasss any crime scene” was unacceptably broad. The caveats allowed two commissioners to vote yes who were otherwise unwilling to do so, thus allowing the policy to move through the commission. The final vote with the caveats was 6-2-1. The license plate reader policy will be brought to the Council by BPD chief Greenwood later this fall.
In March of 2018, Berkeley passed a surveillance transparency ordinance. Nine months earlier, in July of 2017, the City Council (with 3 dissenting votes) expanded the City’s license plate reader “pilot program” by adding 15 additional readers and making the program permanent. At that meeting, the purpose of the ALPR equipment was clearly defined as parking enforcement and the issuing of parking citations.
Fast forward to 2019, and at a Police Review Commission subcommittee meeting on August 7th, things were a bit different.
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