Who runs license plate readers in Santa Barbara County?
- Active License plate readers
- Agency
- Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office
- Vendor
- Flock Safety
- Devices
- —
| System | Agency | Vendor | Status | Devices |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| License plate readers | Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office | Flock Safety | Active | — |
On the map
- 0
- Verified by us
- 255
- Community-reported
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), including community reporting via the DeFlock project. Tiles by OpenFreeMap.
What we do not know
Santa Barbara County Sheriff
- What the Flock agreement costs. The board approved its execution without a figure on the face of the item.
- How long the vendor keeps plate reads the office never downloads. The policy sets a floor for what lands on the office's own servers and is silent about the rest.
- How many cameras there are and where they are.
- What the regular audits the policy requires have actually found.
- How many California agencies have received data, and for what. Every release leaves a written request on file, so the number is knowable.
- What Flock told the office about the system issue, and when.
- What the 2022 trial cost, and what the vendor covered.
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 Santa Barbara County.
Go to the Santa Barbara 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 ↗