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ORWELL INDEX

Who runs license plate readers in Yuba County?

On the map

0
Verified by us
38
Community-reported

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

What we do not know

Yuba County Sheriff

  • How long the plate reads are kept, and what changed. The 2025 report says the agreement brings "expanded storage retention" and never gives a figure either side of it.
  • Whether the department publishes the plate reader usage policy state law requires.
  • What is shared, and with whom. Collaboration with neighbouring agencies was a stated reason to buy the system in 2022.
  • What the Flock handout and the PowerPoint said. Neither is in the public record.
  • Where the thirty-three roadway cameras are, and why two are not in use.

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 Yuba County.

Go to the Yuba 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 ↗