Who runs license plate readers in San Benito County?
Also listed here because the record shows it
These systems are documented primarily as something else. They appear here because a cited record shows the deployment also does this.
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The same agreement covers up to fifteen automated licence plate readers. The staff report gives the plate readers as one of the reasons Flock Safety was chosen over the other bidder.
On the map
- 0
- Verified by us
- 34
- Community-reported
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), including community reporting via the DeFlock project. Tiles by OpenFreeMap.
What we do not know
Gunshot detection and plate readers [Hollister Police]
- How long the recordings are kept. Neither the audio from the gunshot sensors nor the plate data has a retention period in any document we read.
- Whether the department has published a plate reader policy. State law requires operators of plate readers to publish one. We could not find one on the city website in August 2026, which is not the same as finding that none exists.
- Whether the annual evaluation the staff report promised was ever written or presented.
- What happened when the two-year term ended. The agreement ran to 2025 and could be terminated, extended, or expanded.
- How many cameras were installed, and where. The agreement authorised up to fifteen.
- How many privately bought Flock cameras the department can now search, and on what terms.
- Who else can see the data. No document we read names another agency, in either direction.
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 San Benito County.
Go to the San Benito 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 ↗