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ORWELL INDEX

Who runs license plate readers in Sonoma County?

On the map

0
Verified by us
361
Community-reported

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

What we do not know

Cloverdale Police

  • What the five-year renewal actually bought, meaning the camera count, the locations, the retention setting and the sharing list.
  • The retention period configured on the system.
  • Whether Policy 472 has been amended since its May 2023 stamp, and whether the department publishes it anywhere other than a council agenda attachment.
  • The audits the policy calls for, and what they found.

Healdsburg Police

  • The vendor, the number of cameras and where they are installed.
  • The retention period actually configured on the system.
  • The current contract and its terms.
  • Whether Policy 465 has been amended since its December 2022 stamp.

Rohnert Park Public Safety

  • The date of the council presentation, which the file in our corpus does not carry.
  • The council record behind the January 27, 2026 vote.
  • Where the 32 devices are installed, which no record we fetched states.
  • What happens to the ten task-force-funded readers when the two years of SONCATT funding end.
  • The text of the license plate reader policy adopted after the January 2026 change.

Sonoma Police

  • The contract itself, the staff report and the council record for the March 30, 2026 vote.
  • The date and terms of the original 2023 approval.
  • The sharing list, and whether any out-of-state or federal agency can search the data.
  • Which body holds the agreement, given that the city's policing is contracted from the Sheriff's Office.

Sonoma County Sheriff

  • Whether Policy 430 still holds, and whether the office now operates or contracts for any reader of its own, directly or through a task force.
  • The NCRIC privacy policy the office commits itself to, and what it says about retention, out-of-state and federal access, and audits.
  • Who queries the data, how often, and what audit trail exists for the office's use of it.
  • Whether the office reaches plate data through the regional intelligence center, the auto theft task force, or both.

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 Sonoma County.

Go to the Sonoma 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 ↗