Who runs license plate readers in Los Angeles County?
- Active License plate readers
- Agency
- Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
- Vendor
- —
- Devices
- —
| System | Agency | Vendor | Status | Devices |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| License plate readers | Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department | — | Active | — |
On the map
- 0
- Verified by us
- 3332
- Community-reported
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), including community reporting via the DeFlock project. Tiles by OpenFreeMap.
What we do not know
LA County Sheriff
- Who has actually received this data, and under what statutory authority. The revised policy requires a report answering exactly that twice a year. The first falls due at the end of September 2026.
- Where the cameras are. "A majority in contract cities" is the most specific statement in anything we read, and no location list exists in the published record.
- Which agencies hold data-sharing agreements with the Department. Its December 2025 report-back says none of them permits civil-immigration disclosure. The agreements themselves have not been published.
- What the weekly usage audits find. Three separate documents describe them. None reports a result.
- Why section 5-09/550.50 of the same manual still describes a five-year retention review when the privacy policy sets two years.
- Which vendor supplies the system. No document read for this page names one.
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 Los Angeles County.
Go to the Los Angeles 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 ↗