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Central Marin Police | License plate readers

The authority's council received an informational staff report on Flock Safety license plate readers on August 8, 2024. The requested action was to receive the presentation, and the report estimated no cost to the authority because private donations were being pursued. The report attached a draft policy that would delete the data after 30 days and bar sharing with agencies outside California. We did not find an approval, an agreement or a donation record after it in the records we fetched.

At a glance

What the council was asked to do
Receive the presentation and staff report; the item is headed "INFORMATIONAL ITEM ON FLOCK SAFETY AUTOMATED LICENSE PLATE READERS (ALPR)" [1]
Cost to the authority
The report states "no cost to the Authority at this time as private donations are being pursued to fund this program" [1]
Price quoted for a future agreement
About $3,000 per camera per year under a lease and subscription model on a 24-month renewal cycle, covering cameras, maintenance, video hosting, cellular service and software updates [1]
Other Marin agencies named in the report
The report states that the Novato Police Department, the San Rafael Police Department and the Marin County Sheriff's Office use Flock Safety for their plate reader cameras [1]
Draft policy
The staff report carries a draft plate reader policy numbered 426 as an attachment [1]
Retention in the draft
The report states that the system "automatically deletes all information after 30 days" [1]
Sharing outside California in the draft
The report states that the authority "would not permit sharing of any ALPR data with law enforcement agencies outside of California" [1]
Sharing for federal immigration enforcement in the draft
The report states that the authority "would not permit the sharing of ALPR data gathered by CMPA or its contractors/subcontractors for federal immigration enforcement, pursuant to the California Values Act," and names ICE and Customs and Border Patrol [1]
Earlier plate readers
The report states that the authority "previously operated one Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) on East Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and had two marked police vehicles with ALPR capabilities," and that those devices "reached their end of life" [1]
Cameras in the proposed program
the report describes a possible program and states no camera count [1]
Any agreement, donation or approval since
we did not find a later agenda item, agreement or donation record in the records we fetched

How it happened

  1. Debate

    Council receives an informational report on Flock Safety readers

    The staff report is headed "INFORMATIONAL ITEM ON FLOCK SAFETY AUTOMATED LICENSE PLATE READERS (ALPR)" and asks "That the Council receive the presentation and staff report." It estimates "no cost to the Authority at this time as private donations are being pursued to fund this program" and prices a possible future agreement at about $3,000 per camera per year. It carries a draft plate reader policy numbered 426 as an attachment, and states that the system "automatically deletes all information after 30 days." [1]

What the staff report says

The Central Marin Police Authority’s Business Item A for August 8, 2024 is headed “INFORMATIONAL ITEM ON FLOCK SAFETY AUTOMATED LICENSE PLATE READERS (ALPR),” and the action requested is “That the Council receive the presentation and staff report.” The report states that staff “estimates there to be no cost to the Authority at this time as private donations are being pursued to fund this program.” It describes what an agreement would look like: “A future agreement with Flock Safety would be a lease/subscription model based on a 24-month renewal cycle which includes the cameras, maintenance, video hosting, cellular service, and software updates. The total price per camera would be about $3,000 per year.” It also records that “Currently, the Novato Police department, San Rafael Police Department, and the Marin County Sheriff’s Office use Flock Safety for their ALPR cameras.”[1]

What the draft policy would set

The report carries a draft plate reader policy numbered 426 as an attachment and states its substance in the body. The system “automatically deletes all information after 30 days.” The authority “would not permit sharing of any ALPR data with law enforcement agencies outside of California.” It “would not permit the sharing of ALPR data gathered by CMPA or its contractors/subcontractors for federal immigration enforcement, pursuant to the California Values Act,” and the report names the agencies that bar covers: “these federal immigration agencies include Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CPB).”[1] These are the terms of a draft attached to an informational item, not of an adopted policy.

What came before

The same report records earlier equipment. It states that “The Central Marin Police Authority previously operated one Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) on East Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and had two marked police vehicles with ALPR capabilities,” and that “Over time, the technology of the ALPRs phased out and the devices reached their end of life.”[1] The report gives no dates for the installation or the retirement of those devices.

What it does not establish

The item was received, not approved. The report states no camera count and no locations for the program it describes. We did not find a later agenda item, an executed agreement, an adopted policy or a donation record for this program in the records we fetched, and a records request asking what followed the presentation is drafted.

Questions

Does Central Marin Police Authority operate license plate readers?
Not according to the records we fetched. The August 8, 2024 staff report was an informational item, and the action requested was "That the Council receive the presentation and staff report." We did not find a later approval or agreement. The same report states that the authority "previously operated one Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) on East Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and had two marked police vehicles with ALPR capabilities," and that those devices "reached their end of life." [1]
How would the program be paid for?
The staff report estimates "no cost to the Authority at this time as private donations are being pursued to fund this program," and prices a future lease and subscription at about $3,000 per camera per year on a 24-month renewal cycle. [1]
What retention and sharing rules does the draft policy set?
The report attaches a draft policy numbered 426 and states the substance in its body. The system "automatically deletes all information after 30 days." The authority "would not permit sharing of any ALPR data with law enforcement agencies outside of California," and "would not permit the sharing of ALPR data gathered by CMPA or its contractors/subcontractors for federal immigration enforcement, pursuant to the California Values Act." The report names ICE and Customs and Border Patrol as the agencies that bar covers. [1]

On the map

The community has mapped 117 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 Marin County.

What we have documented in Marin 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.
    Central Marin Police Authority, Staff Report Business Item A, informational item on Flock Safety automated license plate readers, August 8, 2024 · Meeting record · · accessed · archived copy

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