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ORWELL INDEX

Who runs license plate readers in Monterey County?

On the map

0
Verified by us
353
Community-reported

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), including community reporting via the DeFlock project. Tiles by OpenFreeMap.

What we do not know

Greenfield Police

  • How many cameras there are and where. The list is Exhibit A to the agreement and we have not read it. Because the agreement lets that list change by written agreement between the two staffs, the current list may not be the one the council saw.
  • How long Greenfield keeps plate data. The agreement makes the city responsible for a retention schedule and does not set one. We have not found the schedule.
  • Whether the city publishes a plate reader usage and privacy policy, which state law requires.
  • Whether the County has signed similar agreements with other cities. If this is a template, the County is the shared infrastructure of a plate reader network across the valley while holding none of the data.
  • What the council decided and whether anyone spoke. We read the staff report, the resolution and the full agreement, not the minutes.

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 Monterey County.

Go to the Monterey 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 ↗