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ORWELL INDEX
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El Dorado County Sheriff | Flock license plate readers

The Board of Supervisors approved a $113,000 Flock Safety purchase contract for the Sheriff's Office in August 2025, two years and "perpetually renewable," exempt from competitive bidding. The Sheriff's policy allows release to other law enforcement agencies on an approved written request and states no in-state limit.

At a glance

Board approval
File 25-1335, 2025-08-26 [1]
Contract
Purchase Contract 9757, $113,000, two years, perpetually renewable [1]
Competitive bidding
Exempt under Board Policy C-17 §3.5 [1]
Funding
California Multi-Jurisdictional Methamphetamine Enforcement grant [1]
Published policy
Policy 426 (manual stamp 2025-07-07) [2]
Minimum retention
1 year [2]
Sharing stated in policy
Other law enforcement or prosecutorial agencies, on written request [2]
Camera count, locations, installation
not in any record we fetched; the contract attachment was not retrieved [1]

How it happened

  1. Context

    Records request for the earlier reader system

    A MuckRock request to the office for license plate reader records, submitted November 1, 2022, is marked completed; the EFF Atlas records the office as using Motorola (formerly Vigilant) readers. [3] [4]

  2. Context

    Policy 426 in the published manual

    Data "will be transferred from vehicles to the designated storage"; minimum one-year retention; release to "other law enforcement or prosecutorial agencies" on a written request approved by the Support Services Division Commander. [2]

  3. Decision

    Board approves the Flock contract

    File 25-1335: "Purchase Contract 9757 with Flock Safety in the amount of $113,000, for two years and perpetually renewable thereafter at an approved quoted rate, for the purchase and deployment of License Plate Recognition cameras and proprietary software that is exempt from competitive bidding pursuant to Board of Supervisors Policy C-17 Section 3.5." [1]

What the Board approved

On August 26, 2025 the Board of Supervisors approved File 25-1335, authorizing “Purchase Contract 9757 with Flock Safety in the amount of $113,000, for two years and perpetually renewable thereafter at an approved quoted rate, for the purchase and deployment of License Plate Recognition cameras and proprietary software that is exempt from competitive bidding pursuant to Board of Supervisors Policy C-17 Section 3.5,” and authorizing the Purchasing Agent “to increase the purchase contract on an ‘as-needed’ basis during the period of the agreement as long as funding is available.” The item’s funding line reads “California Multi-Jurisdictional Methamphetamine Enforcement Team Special Revenue Funds.”[1]

What the policy says

Policy 426 (manual stamp July 7, 2025) says “Data will be transferred from vehicles to the designated storage,” that data “should be stored for a minimum of one year,” and, in 426.7, that “The ALPR data may be shared only with other law enforcement or prosecutorial agencies for official law enforcement purposes or as otherwise permitted by law,” on a written request approved by the Support Services Division Commander.[2] The policy states no in-state limit on recipients.

The Motorola readers

The EFF Atlas records the office as using Motorola (formerly Vigilant) license plate readers. Whether that system continues alongside the Flock purchase is not stated in any record we fetched.[4] A records request to the office for reader records was submitted through MuckRock on November 1, 2022 and is marked completed; the released document has not been read by this project.[3]

Questions

What did the Board approve?
A $113,000 purchase contract with Flock Safety for two years, renewable thereafter, for the purchase and deployment of license plate readers and software, exempt from competitive bidding, with authority to increase it as needed within budget. [1]
Who can receive the data?
Policy 426.7 allows sharing with other law enforcement or prosecutorial agencies on a written request approved by the Support Services Division Commander. It does not state an in-state limit. [2]
Are the cameras installed?
Not stated in any record we fetched. The contract attachment on the Board item was not retrieved and is on the county's retrieval list. [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 County Board of Supervisors, File 25-1335, Purchase Contract 9757 with Flock Safety · Meeting record · · accessed · archived copy
  2. 2.
    El Dorado County Sheriff's Office Policy Manual (2025), Policy 426, Automated License Plate Readers · Primary document · · accessed · archived copy · our copy (3426 KB)
  3. 3.
    MuckRock, Automated License Plate Readers (El Dorado County Sheriff's Office), request P005125-110222 · Primary document · · accessed · archived copy
  4. 4.
    EFF Atlas of Surveillance, El Dorado County Sheriff's Office, Automated License Plate Readers · Dataset · accessed · archived copy

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