Next time you’re driving around Shasta County, law enforcement could be watching your car more closely, as a new set of high-tech license plate cameras comes online.
Shasta County has joined the City of Redding and the Butte County Sheriff’s Office in using automated license plate readers. Before the end of the month, two dozen license plate readers made by the Atlanta-based company Flock Safety will be installed across the county.
License plate readers work by recording the license plate number of every vehicle that passes within sight. They can be fixed to poles, alongside roads and on law enforcement vehicles.
“A lot of people are very concerned regarding immigration and reproductive care. These cameras cannot be used for that.”- Kody Bodner, Shasta County Sheriff’s Office lieutenant
While law enforcement says these surveillance cameras are powerful crime-fighting tools, watchdog groups, like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), have raised the alarm on how information collected by the cameras is being used by police. In some cases, the groups have found data wrongly falling into the hands of federal agencies.
That’s illegal in California because of Senate Bill 34. The decade-old measure bars law enforcement agencies from sharing license plate reader data with out-of-state agencies or federal entities.
Kody Bodner, a lieutenant with the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office, said he’s aware of the privacy concerns and SB 34.
“A lot of people are very concerned regarding immigration and reproductive care,” he said. “These cameras cannot be used for that.”
Bodner added his office has no intention of breaking the law, and that it could be held accountable if it did. He added that residents can see who the department is sharing data with on the sheriff’s office website.
“Sometimes they may be tempted to or accidentally, inadvertently, share that information out of state with the federal government, or with law enforcement agencies in states that don't share California's values ..."- Nick Hidalgo, senior staff attorney with the ACLU of Northern California
But Nick Hidalgo, senior staff attorney with the ACLU of Northern California, said it’s not that simple. Once the license plate data is stored, he said it can be hard for local law enforcement agencies to control where it goes and who has access to it.
“Sometimes they may be tempted to or accidentally, inadvertently, share that information out of state with the federal government, or with law enforcement agencies in states that don't share California's values as it pertains to things like reproductive care or immigrants rights,” Hidalgo said.
Reports by the ACLU, CalMatters, 404 Media and other news outlets have found several California police agencies have intentionally shared data with Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Last October, California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued the city of El Cajon for illegally sharing license plate data with out-of-state law enforcement. Several cities across the country have had Flock cameras removed from their police departments.
“We have 10 to 15 deputies to manage over 3,000 square miles worth of area. These cameras are able to be a force multiplier for us.”- Kody Bodner, Shasta County Sheriff’s Office lieutenant
But Bodner said those worries need to be weighed against the cameras’ investigative value. He stressed the fact that the cameras could be game-changers when it comes to how quickly and efficiently his office can solve crimes, especially in a county as large as Shasta.
“We have 10 to 15 deputies to manage over 3,000 square miles worth of area,” Bodner said. “These cameras are able to be a force multiplier for us.”
Bodner also noted that the cameras don’t work like red light cameras and aren’t used for any type of traffic enforcement.
“These will not be used to go after people for their registration or for speeding or for seatbelts,” he said. “These cameras are meant to catalog vehicles for criminal investigations, not for infractions.”
According to Flock Safety, their cameras capture between 6-12 images of a vehicle per session. Data is then deleted after 30 days. The cameras also use artificial intelligence (AI) to capture what Flock calls a “Vehicle Fingerprint.” That includes details like a car’s make, model, color and other identifiers. All of this information is then uploaded into Flock’s system and compared to existing law enforcement “hot lists” — basically databases of vehicles and people of interest.
Shasta County’s five-year contract with Flock was approved last November and totals $550,000. It’s funded with PG&E settlement money stemming from the company’s role in the 2020 Zogg Fire.
