In May, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and California’s chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union asked the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office and 70 other law enforcement agencies to stop sharing data from automated license plate readers (ALPRs) with other states, citing concern about the use of people’s locations in states that have banned abortion and federal immigration enforcement. The groups also said state laws that protect data were not being followed.
State Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office released legal guidance on the way data should be shared, noting that law enforcement agencies should share information only with other California law enforcement agencies.
“Importantly, the definition of ‘public agency’ is limited to state or local agencies, including law enforcement agencies, and does not include out-of-state or federal law enforcement agencies,” the guidance document from John D. Marsh notes.
Samantha Karges, a former spokesperson for the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, noted in a June 2 email that the agency used a single ALPR attached to a car in a testing phase last year. She said this data is not shared with federal law enforcement agencies tasked with immigration enforcement. Three deputies were trained to use the system.
According to documents shared by the EFF as a result of a public records request, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office shares ALPR data with hundreds of other agencies. From January to November 2022, it read 244,457 license plates and got 4,220 “hits,” according to the public records request.
The EFF said prosecutors in other states could use the ALPRs data to find people who have traveled to California for abortions, as the data was shared with law enforcement agencies in states with abortion bans.
ALPRs are generally affixed to traffic signals or on top of police cars and collect information uploaded to databases that include some law enforcement agencies. They show the location of a vehicle and the license plate at a specific moment and can provide leads for law enforcement investigating crime, according to Karges.
The EFF applauded the release from the Attorney General’s Office.
In a news release, the EFF called the ALPR system a “mass surveillance technology” and said the vast majority of data is collected on people who are not committing crimes.
State legislation passed in 2015, Senate Bill 34, included a prohibition of California agencies from sharing this data with non-California agencies. AB 1242, passed with sponsorship from Bonta in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, also involved data protections for those seeking abortions.
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