An automated license plate reader (ALPR) camera from the Atlanta-based company Flock Safety. | Photo by Tony Webster, CC BY 2.0.

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Last month, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office installed a pair of Flock Safety-brand automated license plate-reading (ALPR) cameras near Willow Creek, expanding its countywide network of the controversial surveillance devices to 11.

Our local Sheriff’s Office is among more than 7,000 organizations in the U.S. that contract with Atlanta-based Flock Safety, whose ALPR cameras employ artificial intelligence to identify and track vehicles. The company was recently valued at $8.4 billion, according to the New York Times.

Over the past 30 days, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office’s network of Flock cameras has captured more than 130,000 individual license plates, according to the agency’s online transparency portal. In addition to “reading” the passing plates, Flock’s high-resolution cameras record and analyze each vehicle’s make, model and color and capture other identifying features, such as scratches and dents. All of that data is stored for up to 30 days.

The Sheriff’s Office currently shares its Flock network data with 22 other California law enforcement agencies, which can access the stored information for their own investigations.

An Outpost investigation last year found that the Sheriff’s Office appeared to be violating state law and its own policy by allowing outside law enforcement agencies to conduct hundreds of thousands of searches per month of its ALPR data, often without first obtaining legally required information such as the reason for the search and the identity of the officer conducting it.

The Sheriff’s Office subsequently restricted the number of outside agencies with access to its ALPR data — from nearly 300 to just 22 — and the agency said it regularly conducts retroactive audits of search data to ensure that no unauthorized or improper access was granted.

The Outpost investigation also revealed that hundreds of searches by local and state law enforcement officers referenced federal agencies, including Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in direct violation of SB 34. A CalMatters investigation found that this law is routinely violated by California law enforcement agencies. Furthermore, while state law prohibits ICE and other federal agencies from accessing ALPR data directly, it does not prevent local agencies from conducting searches on their behalf. 

Over on the Sheriff’s Office’s Flock transparency portal you can download a spreadsheet that tells you the date and time of each search conducted by the HCSO’s own employees in the past 30 days, along with the reason behind the search, the related case number and the number of Flock cameras accessed. What the spreadsheet doesn’t show is who has accessed the HCSO’s own Flock camera data, or when or why.

Civil liberties advocates, both locally and nationwide, have raised privacy concerns over the proliferation of ALPR cameras. These critics point to cases of alleged abuse, such as this Arizona cop who allegedly used Flock cameras to stalk his wife, or this Texas officer who searched more than 83,000 cameras to track a woman across state lines who was falsely accused of self-administering abortion medication. 

On its transparency portal, the Sheriff’s Office says its Flock cameras don’t detect individual faces, gender or race, and the agency’s list of prohibited uses includes immigration enforcement, traffic enforcement, harassment or intimidation, personal use and profiling by race, sex, religion or any other protected class.

Still, public pushback persists. Earlier this year, a petition circulating online called on the Sheriff’s Office to end its contract with Flock Safety and remove all of its leased ALPR cameras, arguing that the devices raise privacy concerns and contribute “to a climate of fear and mistrust.” To date, that petition — linked here — has gathered almost 1,600 signatures.

Back in June, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors spent about four hours debating the Sheriff’s Office’s use of Flock Safety ALPRs. The board wound up voting 4-1 to create an ad hoc committee to examine alternatives to Flock, including systems that would give the county more control over its data and potentially allow local/on-site data storage.

The board also voted 4-1 to have the Public Works Department develop a policy governing the placement and use of surveillance technology on county property and rights-of-way. First District Supervisor Rex Bohn cast the lone dissenting vote on both actions.

In response to an emailed inquiry about the Sheriff’s Office’s two new cameras, Public Information Specialist Erin Inskip said the devices were deployed on July 1, and the agency does not currently have plans to add any more.

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