The Chico Police Department says it has shut off license plate reader data sharing that, until July 8, appears to have been in violation of California state law.
Two weeks after ChicoSol requested public records related to the department’s Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) data sharing program, Chico PD said it stopped sharing data with federal and out-of-state agencies.
Two California laws restrict or prohibit the sharing of ALPR data beyond this state. SB 34 says local law enforcement can only share collected data with California agencies. SB 54, the Values Act, bars local law enforcement from assisting in federal immigration actions.
In a recent interview, Chief of Police Billy Aldridge indicated, at one point, that he had been unaware federal and out-of-state agencies had access to the city’s ALPR system.
“As we started producing the information for the PRA, we found out, holy cow, we’re sharing with these people and actually when it was set up we shouldn’t have been sharing outside of California or with the federal agencies,” Aldridge said in a Zoom interview on July 22.
“We immediately shut it off.”
The data sharing may have violated the 10-year-old SB 34 as well as 8-year-old SB 54, civil rights attorneys said.
“[The] law is crystal clear that a law enforcement agency in the State of California is not allowed to share ALPR information with any law enforcement agency outside of the state, and that includes the federal agencies,” said Nick Hidalgo, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Northern California.
Hidalgo called ALPRs a “dangerous and invasive” surveillance technology.
Chico PD said it could not yet provide documentation showing the sharing shutoff. It also said it has begun a full audit of the data-sharing.
In response to a June 22 Public Records Act request, Chico PD provided records that show data sharing with many federal and out-of-state law enforcement agencies. Records as recent as July 7 from the Motorola ALPR dashboard show there were 20 federal agencies and more than 80 out-of-state law enforcement agencies with access to Chico’s data.
Agencies that were able to access Chico’s surveillance data include ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, ICE Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Border Patrol and a military police department at a Southern California U.S. Marine base.
Chico PD has given ICE access to its ALPR data since Feb. 28, 2024, according to MOUs (memorandums of understanding) obtained by ChicoSol through public records requests.
Aldridge told ChicoSol the system is nearly two years old and was set up solely for the purpose of criminal investigations and to help in locating missing persons and stolen property.
“It was never intended for any kind of immigration purposes,” Aldridge said. “We don’t abide by any kind of immigration enforcement because we have SB 54, the Values Act.”
The sharing with out-of-state and federal agencies was in line with Chico PD policy – even though the California laws that impose restrictions, such as SB 54, — were in effect.
“When we initiated the ALPR system and started allowing access to it, it was through an MOU process, it was an agreement that they would only use it for criminal investigations, there would be no immigration enforcement at all,” Aldridge said.
The chief said an internal audit is underway that shows federal agencies accessed ALPR records, but the audit doesn’t yet show data was retrieved by those agencies.
The audit has found that “we’ve had access by federal agencies on multiple occasions, but so far no sharing of data that has happened,” Aldridge said. “The plates they were looking for did not pop up in our system.”
However, the chief noted there are several million records in the system, and many are still unaudited.
Aldridge indicated he is concerned about the full audit.
“It’s definitely something that concerns me,” Aldridge said. “Did we do something that we need to take ownership of? If there’s legal issues from that I’ll refer to the city attorney.”
ALPR cameras: What are they capturing?
The Chico Police Department has 27 active, stationary Motorola-brand ALPR cameras. The cameras are capable of collecting identifiable data from passing vehicles and capture more than just license plate numbers.
Many of these cameras are positioned near major roadways entering and leaving Chico. The department has plans to install two additional cameras in the near future, Aldridge said.
ALPR cameras are capable of identifying the make and model of a vehicle, as well as bumper stickers and images of a vehicle’s passengers, said Jennifer Pinsof, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital civil rights organization.
“It’s a scary mass surveillance machine,” she said, noting that the state Attorney General’s office has commented on similar practices in other cities. “So it’s pretty clear that Chico’s in violation of the law.”
The data is aggregated into large, searchable databases where law enforcement can trace a vehicle’s movements months after the data has been captured.
“This data can be compiled with other data to reveal more and more about people,” Pinsof said. “Where they go, where you sleep at night, how they commute to work.”
In Chico Police Department’s policy manual §449.5.B.1, the department allows data sharing with Oregon, Nevada, Arizona and federal agencies once an MOU is reached between Chico and the receiving department. Out-of-state and federal agencies have entered successful data-sharing MOUs with Chico PD.
“It was within our policy that we would share with an agency that would request an MOU,” the chief said. “That policy has since been pulled.
“New policy is being released here shortly and pretty much removes the piece about sharing,” Aldridge said. “Only inside California agencies will now have access.”
Aldridge was unsure where Chico PD’s data sharing policy originated.
“I’m not exactly sure how that language was created,” he said. “If it was Lexipol language or if it was our language – we’re still working through that to figure out how that happened.”
(Lexipol is a distributor of law enforcement policy manuals contracted by the city of Chico.)
At the time of publication, section 449.5.B.1 of the department’s policy manual, permitting ALPR sharing with out-of-state and federal agencies, remained live on the city’s website.
In Chico and nationwide, concerns about privacy
Nationwide, cities are reconsidering their use of ALPR technologies because of data privacy concerns. On July 15, the city of Los Angeles discontinued its three-year contract with ALPR provider Flock Safety.
Chico criminal defense attorney Elizabeth Latimer said the technology recently helped Chico police recover her stolen vehicle quickly.
Officers were able to track the car to Williams about five and a half hours after she reported it stolen. Although she was happy she could quickly recover her car, she admits she was “frightened” by the precision and reach of the tracking technology.
Editor Leslie Layton contributed reporting to this story. The article was fact-checked by reporter Chris Hutton.