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Merced Police | Vigilant license plate readers

Merced Police operates Motorola Vigilant license plate readers. In April 2026, the department said it disabled sharing connections to certain federal agencies after an internal review.

At a glance

Vendor identified by department
Motorola Vigilant [1]
Federal connections
disabled after an April 2026 review [1]
Historical policy retention
minimum one year [2]
Current retention configuration
the current Agency Report could not be retrieved by the automated fetcher [1]

How it happened

  1. Context

    Department issues an ALPR policy

    Policy 436 governs official use, alert verification, access logs, audits, retention, and sharing. It is a historical policy and may not describe the current configuration. [2]

  2. Incident

    Department announces a sharing review

    Merced Police says prior configurations allowed sharing with certain federal agencies. It says those connections were disabled and that further audits would follow. [1]

What the department disclosed

On April 23, 2026, Merced Police said an internal review found that prior license plate reader configurations had allowed sharing with certain federal agencies. The department said it disabled those connections and would conduct further audits. It identified the system as Motorola Vigilant, not Flock Safety.[1]

The statement does not identify the agencies, the dates of access, or the number and purpose of searches. It also does not say that the system was shut down.

The published historical rules

The department’s May 2019 Policy 436 permits ALPR use for official law-enforcement purposes and does not require reasonable suspicion before a search. It directs members to verify an alert through CLETS when practical and requires access logs and periodic audits.[2]

That policy states that server data is kept for at least one year and permits sharing with law-enforcement and prosecutorial agencies. It predates the April 2026 configuration change, so it should not be read as a complete statement of the current sharing network.[2][1]

The city’s transparency page links a current ALPR Agency Report, but the document host returned a 403 response to the automated fetcher. That report, current configuration records, and audit results are the next records needed.

Questions

Does Merced Police use Flock cameras?
The department says its ALPR vendor is Motorola Vigilant, not Flock Safety. A separate county Sheriff program uses Flock. [1]
Did federal agencies have access?
Merced Police says an internal review found prior configurations that allowed sharing with certain federal agencies. It says those connections were disabled. [1]
How long is plate data kept?
The 2019 policy states at least one year, but the current configuration and current Agency Report were not available to the automated review. [2]
Does an alert have to be confirmed?
The 2019 policy directs members to verify an alert through CLETS when practical. [2]

On the map

The community has mapped 62 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 Merced County.

What we have documented in Merced 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.
    Merced Police statement on ALPR data sharing, April 23, 2026 · Primary document · · accessed · archived copy
  2. 2.
    Merced Police policy manual, May 6, 2019, Policy 436 · Primary document · · accessed · archived copy

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