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El Dorado Hills CSD | License plate readers

El Dorado Hills Community Services District, an elected parks district, runs its own license plate readers under a policy adopted in September 2022 that purges data after 60 days and lists measuring "community engagement" among the system's purposes.

At a glance

Published policy
Policy 3700, adopted 2022-09-08 [1]
Retention
Not to exceed 60 days, then automatically purged, except records downloaded as evidence [1]
Purposes stated
Property protection, identifying vehicles tied to crime, measuring community engagement, responding to law enforcement inquiries [1]
Vendor, camera count, locations
not stated in the policy; not in any record we fetched [1]

How it happened

  1. Decision

    Policy 3700 adopted

    The district's Automated License Plate Reader Usage and Privacy Policy, number 3700, carries the adoption date September 8, 2022. [1]

What the policy says

Policy 3700 provides “guidelines and principles for the collection, access, use, dissemination, retention, and purging of LPR information,” and lists among its purposes to “Measure community engagement with activities, services, and resources offered by the EDHCSD” and “To respond to inquiries of law enforcement agencies.” Section 3700.100 states: “All LPR information contained within the EDHCSD’s LPR system will be stored for a period not to exceed 60 days. After 60 days, the information will be automatically purged,” except that a record downloaded because it “has become or there is reason to believe that it will become evidence” is kept under the district’s records retention policy.[1]

The policy names no vendor, count or location. Community-mapped points in El Dorado Hills on the county map are community reports and are not attributed to the district.

Questions

Why does a parks district have license plate readers?
The policy lists purposes including public safety and patron security, protecting district and visitor property, identifying vehicles tied to potential witnesses or victims, measuring community engagement with district activities, and responding to law enforcement inquiries. [1]
How long is the data kept?
Not more than 60 days, after which the policy says it is automatically purged. A record downloaded because it has become or may become evidence is kept under the district's records retention policy instead. [1]

On the map

The community has mapped 89 devices of this type in the county on OpenStreetMap. These are community reports: the vendor and operator of each point are unverified, and none is confirmed to belong to this system. See them on the map →

Street names from reverse geocoding — © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).

What we do not know

What you can do

Show up

Systems like this one are approved by boards, councils and committees that meet in public. We have not yet confirmed where each of them meets in El Dorado County.

What we have documented in El Dorado County →

Protect yourself

Practical steps to shrink your personal data trail. Our guides publish at launch; until then, EFF's Surveillance Self-Defense is the best starting point.

Surveillance Self-Defense →

Sources

  1. 1.
    El Dorado Hills Community Services District, District Policies, Policy 3700, Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) Usage and Privacy Policy · Primary document · · accessed · archived copy · our copy (860 KB)

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