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Roseville Police | License plate readers

Roseville Police's published policy keeps reader data for 60 days, requires independent suspicion before any stop, and limits sharing to agencies within 150 miles. The county grand jury reported that Roseville is the one local department outside the Sheriff's sharing arrangement.

At a glance

Vendor
Flock Safety, as named in a 2023 Sheriff memo listing Roseville among existing users [2]
Published policy
Policy 425 (Lexipol stamp 2025-09-03) [1]
Retention
Data "should be stored for 60 days" under the policy, subject to the records retention schedule and an exception for evidence [1]
Stops on an alert
Not allowed on the alert alone; independent reasonable suspicion or probable cause is required [1]
Sharing
Law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies only; requests limited to agencies within 150 miles of Roseville, or case by case beyond [1]
Place in the county network
The 2025-2026 grand jury reported that the Sheriff shares its data with every local department "Except for Roseville Police Department" [3]
Cameras and cost
not in any record we fetched

How it happened

  1. Context

    Named as an existing Flock user in a Sheriff memo

    The Sheriff's memo asking the Board to approve the county's own Flock agreement describes the camera as "currently utilized by the police departments of Auburn, Grass Valley, Lincoln, Roseville, Rocklin, Truckee, Folsom, Elk Grove, and Vacaville". [2]

  2. Context

    Policy 425 stamp

    The published policy states that "All ALPR data should be stored for 60 days (Vehicle Code § 2413)" and that "ALPR hits shall NOT be the sole basis for an enforcement or investigative stop." [1]

  3. Coverage

    Grand jury describes Roseville as outside the Sheriff's sharing

    The 2025-2026 civil grand jury reported that "Except for Roseville Police Department, Placer County Sheriff’s Office shares its ALPR data, both investigative and real-time data, with all of the local police departments within Placer County as well as California Highway Patrol, among others." [3]

What the policy says

Roseville Police Department’s published Policy 425 says that “All ALPR data should be stored for 60 days (Vehicle Code § 2413) and in accordance with the established records retention schedule” and then purged unless it has become evidence. It states that “ALPR hits shall NOT be the sole basis for an enforcement or investigative stop. Independent reasonable suspicion or probable cause is required before making a traffic stop,” while also stating that “Reasonable suspicion or probable cause is not required before using an ALPR.” Release is limited to “other law enforcement or prosecutorial agencies for official law enforcement purposes or as otherwise permitted by law,” and a “Sharing request will be limited to agencies within 150 mile radius of the City of Roseville or on a case by case basis with agencies outside of that area.”[1]

What other records say

The policy names no vendor. The Sheriff’s March 2023 memo to the Board of Supervisors describes the Flock Safety camera as “currently utilized by the police departments of Auburn, Grass Valley, Lincoln, Roseville, Rocklin, Truckee, Folsom, Elk Grove, and Vacaville,” which is the basis for the vendor on this page.[2] The 2025-2026 civil grand jury, describing the county’s sharing arrangement, wrote that “Except for Roseville Police Department, Placer County Sheriff’s Office shares its ALPR data, both investigative and real-time data, with all of the local police departments within Placer County as well as California Highway Patrol, among others.”[3] The report does not give a reason.

What it does not establish

The contract, the camera count, the locations, the cost and the council items that approved the program are not in any record we fetched on this pass. Roseville’s council portal was not swept.

Questions

How long does Roseville keep license plate reader data?
Policy 425 says "All ALPR data should be stored for 60 days (Vehicle Code § 2413)" and then purged unless it has become evidence. [1]
Can an officer stop a car because the reader flagged it?
Not on the alert alone. The policy says "ALPR hits shall NOT be the sole basis for an enforcement or investigative stop. Independent reasonable suspicion or probable cause is required before making a traffic stop." It also says no suspicion is required to use a reader in the first place. [1]
Who can get Roseville's data?
The policy limits release to "other law enforcement or prosecutorial agencies" and says a "Sharing request will be limited to agencies within 150 mile radius of the City of Roseville or on a case by case basis with agencies outside of that area." The grand jury reported that Roseville is the one local department outside the Sheriff's own sharing arrangement; the report does not say why. [1] [3]
How many cameras does Roseville have?
Not in any record we fetched. The vendor comes from a 2023 Sheriff memo that lists Roseville among existing Flock users. The contract, the count and the cost are open questions. [2]

On the map

The community has mapped 248 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 Placer County.

What we have documented in Placer 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.
    Roseville Police Department Policy Manual, Policy 425, Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) · Primary document · · accessed · archived copy · our copy (3773 KB)
  2. 2.
    Placer County Sheriff's Office memo to the Board of Supervisors, item 24B, Flock Group Inc. Agreement, March 28, 2023 · Meeting record · · accessed · archived copy
  3. 3.
    Placer County Civil Grand Jury, 2025-2026 Final Report, "Placer County Sheriff's Office and Auburn Police Department: An Opportunity for Improved Public Safety", pp. 17-35 · Primary document · accessed · archived copy

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