Who runs license plate readers in Humboldt County?
- Active License plate readers
- Agency
- Humboldt County Sheriff's Office
- Vendor
- Flock Safety
- Devices
- —
- Rejected License plate readers, proposed
- Agency
- Eureka Police Department
- Vendor
- Flock Safety
- Devices
- —
| System | Agency | Vendor | Status | Devices |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| License plate readers | Humboldt County Sheriff's Office | Flock Safety | Active | — |
| License plate readers, proposed | Eureka Police Department | Flock Safety | Rejected | — |
On the map
- 0
- Verified by us
- 20
- Community-reported
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), including community reporting via the DeFlock project. Tiles by OpenFreeMap.
What we do not know
Humboldt County Sheriff
- What the monthly audits have found. The policy requires one every month and no result appears in anything we read.
- How many cameras are in operation and where they are. The county record documents nine purchased.
- When each camera was installed and switched on. The purchase dates are in the record; the installation dates are not.
- Whether any vendor network sharing setting is enabled, and what it is set to. The policy says the prohibition reaches vendor-held databases and the record does not say how that is enforced.
- When the audit requirement changed from annual to monthly, and why.
- What the Ad Hoc committee and the Public Works policy directed on 2 June 2026 have produced.
Eureka PD
- What the minutes record. The vote on this page comes from two news outlets, and the city's council records are on a host our tooling cannot read.
- What the draft policy said. The agenda summary lists a draft department policy as its only attachment, and we have not read it.
- What the contract would have cost. The summary marks it as needing an additional appropriation and gives no figure.
- Whether Arcata, Fortuna, Cal Poly Humboldt or the District Attorney's Office went ahead. All four were named as in discussions in autumn 2024 and none has been swept.
What license plate readers are
An automated license plate reader photographs every passing vehicle and records the plate, the time and the place. It does not watch suspects. It logs everyone, and the record is usually kept on a vendor’s servers.
How they work, why agencies buy them, and every county we have documented →
What you can do
Civic action
Show up
This technology is bought and renewed by boards, councils and committees that meet in public. We have not yet confirmed where each of them meets in Humboldt County.
Go to the Humboldt County hub →Personal protection
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 ↗