Last night, the Eureka City Council unanimously voted to reject a proposal from the Eureka Police Department to install nearly two dozen automated license plate-reading (ALPR) cameras throughout the city, citing concerns over privacy protections and data sharing.
The council’s decision came after nearly two hours of impassioned public comment where all but one speaker urged the council to vote against the proposal. The vast majority of the 50-odd commenters worried that the information could be obtained by federal immigration officials and used to target undocumented community members.
The technology, provided by Georgia-based manufacturer Flock Safety, uses stationary cameras to automatically collect license plate details from passing vehicles. That encrypted data is stored and cross-referenced against a database of vehicles of interest, often termed a “hot list,” which may include vehicles associated with active investigations, missing people, or those implicated in criminal activities. When a match is found, a real-time alert notifies police of the location where the image of the vehicle was captured.
Eureka Police Chief Brian Stephens introduced the draft policy to the city council last October, noting at the time that ALPR technology “truly has the capability to be a force multiplier” for the department. The council opted to table its decision until the city’s Community Oversight on Police Practices (COPP) board had a chance to review the draft policy and offer its own recommendations, which it did at its quarterly meeting last week.
Speaking at last night’s meeting, Stephens said he’s been working with City Attorney Autumn Luna, City Manager Miles Slattery and OIR Group, the city’s independent police auditor, to incorporate additional oversight measures into the draft ALPR policy, which was modeled after best practices issued by Lexipol, a private company that provides policy guidelines and training standards for law enforcement agencies across the country.
Stephens | Screenshot
“The issue of privacy is obviously the overbearing concern, not only stemming from the potential implementation of this technology in our community but in our society as a whole,” Stephens said. “As a chief of police, I can’t address that fear and concern on a national level but I can address it on a local level, as it relates to the implementation use of the Flock … and hopefully lessen that fear and concern surrounding the technology.”
Speaking via Zoom, Flock Community Affairs Manager Kristin MacLeod noted that the company uses end-to-end encryption to ensure data integrity. She emphasized that the company does not use AI or facial recognition technology to “make enforcement recommendations.”
“Nor is it predictive policing,” she said. “We’re not predicting where or when crime occurs. [Our] technology takes the information contained in the still images and organizes it into [a] searchable database … .”
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office implemented the county’s ALPR program in April 2024. The Blue Lake Rancheria recently signed a contract with Flock, Stephens said, for eight cameras on the rancheria and along State Route 299. Other local law enforcement agencies have looked into technology as well, including the Arcata, Fortuna and University police departments.
Councilmember G. Mario Fernandez asked for an example of how ALPR technology would be used. Stephens recounted a “horrific investigation” where a man was set on fire in broad daylight and it took EPD officers over six hours to track down the suspect. “It took us three hours to search … cameras in that area to find a photograph of the vehicle, and then it took another three hours for officers to scour the City of Eureka to find that vehicle parked somewhere and arrest that suspect,” he said.
If the city had Flock’s cameras at the time, EPD could have entered the vehicle’s description into the system and likely known which direction the suspect was traveling, Stephens said. “We [could have] cut it down into an hour, and this individual wouldn’t have had any chances to hurt anyone else,” he explained. “It helps us focus the manpower that we do have in the right place to get them to the suspect in a lot quicker time frame.”
Councilmember Kati Moulton asked what protections the California Values Act would provide for undocumented residents under the draft policy, and if EPD would be required to share ALPR data with federal immigration officials.
Moulton | Screenshot
“[The policy says] a law enforcement official shall have discretion to cooperate with immigration authorities only if doing so would not violate any federal, state, local law or local policy,” Moulton said. “And then there’s a long list of exceptions for both federal and state agencies to request information … . Am I right to understand that there are exceptions to the California Values Act where we would have to turn over information about somebody being in Eureka or being seen on our cameras?”
If the person in question is a suspect of a crime, yes, Stephens said. “Additionally, if a federal agency came to us with a court order, a subpoena [or a] federal search warrant, then they could also have access to that [data] … because [the order] came from a judge, not from an agency themselves.”
However, if there were any “legal concerns” surrounding the authenticity or legality of the subpoena, the matter would be heard in court, Stephens said.
“What would happen if the City of Eureka got a federal subpoena for information and then refused to turn over that information?” Moulton asked.
“We could be subject to court sanctions at that point,” Luna responded. “So with a judicial warrant for the release of information, I think the city would be beholden to that warrant.”
During the two-hour public comment portion of last night’s meeting, dozens of speakers urged the city council to deny the contract to protect the privacy of its citizens. Eureka resident Kendall Finch expressed concern for marginalized communities who could be disproportionately impacted by increased surveillance measures.
“One of Trump’s first initiatives in his last administration was an attempt to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA),” Finch said. “These are loved ones and neighbors, they’re folks who grew up in the U.S. If DACA ends, cameras like these make these folks easier to find and target, and a Flock contract specifically would put their data in the hands of out-of-state agencies we have no control over.”
Eureka resident Scott Palmer said he was “wildly against” the proposal and questioned whether Flock’s encryption methods would remain effective in the months and years to come.
“Even if today’s perfect encryption is wonderful, is it going to be that in six months?” he asked. “[W]e’re looking at a slippery slope. … Let’s protect our community, but [this technology] doesn’t stop nefarious things from happening. … I believe wholeheartedly in giving [EPD] everything they need to keep this community safe and to deal with the very significant issues that face us on a regular basis. … I believe wholeheartedly that the chief will run a tight ship and keep a good eye on all this, but … I don’t know who’s going to be in charge of it five years from now or 10 years from now.”
COPP board member Melinda Ciarabellini was the only person who spoke in favor of the proposal, though she noted that her opinion was her own and not that of the COPP board.
“The use of this technology will greatly enhance EPD’s effectiveness in criminal investigation,” she said. “[T]he potential benefits of using this technology as another tool in the toolbox, as we say, far outweighs any concerns you may have about privacy issues or thoughts about the potential misuse of the system by EPD officers, especially considering that the data being collected is a photograph of the back of a vehicle and a license plate that’s taken while on a public road — that’s it.”
Ciarabellini emphasized that there are “many, many safeguards” built into the draft policy to address potential abuse by EPD officers and administrators.
“For example, access to and use of the ALPR system requires all users, administrators and officers to have individual credentials — like a PIN or a password — and that log-in and log-out information is subject to audit,” she continued. “Consider what may happen if you choose not to approve the use of ALPRs in the City of Eureka. Your strained police force will be left without this vital tool to help identify and apprehend criminals leaving the scene of a crime or committing crimes in progress.”
Councilmember Leslie Castellano echoed some of the concerns expressed during public comment and emphasized the importance of “building community trust.” She also felt the $74,000 that would be spent on the installation and first year of Flock’s services could be spent in better ways and made a motion to deny the proposal. The motion was simultaneously seconded by Fernandez and Moulton.
Contreras-DeLoach | Screenshot
Councilmember Renee Contreras-DeLoach expressed her appreciation to staff who put their time into developing the draft policy and EPD officers “for the good work they’re doing in our community,” but said she would also be voting against the proposal. “I know that there’s a good intention here, and it’s to be able to solve crimes for us and make things safer because we are dealing with some issues here in our community.”
Councilmember Scott Bauer noted that Eureka “is a small city with big city problems” and acknowledged that Flock’s technology could serve as a tool to address some of those problems. But like his fellow councilmembers, Bauer felt the potential negative impacts and unintended consequences of the technology outweighed the benefits.
“I do want to recognize that there’s no malintent by EPD or the chief — this is purely [our city] trying to figure out a way to make people feel safer in the community,” he said. “It’s hard to support this tool when there’s so much concern from all of us, frankly. I hope we can figure out another way to help the public feel safe in their community and help our police force … .”
The motion to deny the camera-reading technology proposal passed 5-0.
Sometime over the weekend, less than a week after it was put up, the proud Zionist image was torn off of the billboard. See photos below. The Arcata Police Department is investigating the vandalism.
Lt. Todd Dockweiler tells the Outpost that the call first reporting the crime came in on Saturday, and there are no known security cameras nearby. He noted the deluge of negative responses to the billboard on social media and elsewhere, adding, “The pool of suspects is large.”
Photos by Andrew Goff.
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Original post:
The billboard next to Highway 101.
Drivers heading south from Arcata today may have noticed a new billboard off to the right of Highway 101, a message that reads “Call me a Zionist. It only makes me prouder” against a background of a woman in front of the flag of Israel.
The slogan was put up by David Porush of San Mateo, according to the Jewish News of Northern California. Porush has also paid for a billboard reading “America and Israel: Fighting Terrorism Together” in Redwood City. Porush runs an organization called Code Blue and White and got the funding from JewBelong, a nonprofit known for its pro-Israel billboards.
Porush worked with Israel-born Arcata resident Tamar Krigel to design the slogan.
The billboard is proving controversial. One post on the Humboldt subreddit calling for its demolition has over 100 upvotes. Dozens of commenters bemoan its Zionist message and its inflammatory effect on the community.
“Cut it the fuck down,” said one anonymous commenter. “Mr. Molotov would be happy to help,” said another.
Krigel told the Jewish News of Northern California that she reached out to Parush to design a billboard after last spring’s pro-Palestine occupation shut campus down for a week.
The Outpost is waiting on a statement from Krigel.
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[EXPLANATORY ADDENDUM: Geoff Wills, owner of local company AllPoints Signs, called the Outpost to say that while his company installed this advertisement, he does not own the billboard, nor was he involved in the sale or contract terms. As such, he asks that complaints be directed elsewhere.]
It’s a busy week for the boys in Marble Jar. This coming Saturday, the Humboldt alternative punk rock trio will celebrate this week’s release of their new album All of the Marbles with a show at the Arcata Playhouse. But before that scene coalesces, the group stopped by the Carson Block Building to hang on the air with KSLG’s very own Rhi Marie. (Listen above.)
Started by frontman Peter Ricchio back in 2010 as Peter Puffington and the Rocketship Explosion, the group has gone through several lineup changes before arriving at the current configuration that also features drummer Mitch Holmes and bassist/producer Sean “Trugg” Weikal. All of the Marbles is the band’s first full length album following the 2022 EP Losing Your Marbles and the live set Live @Blondies.
As though their album release wasn’t momentous enough, the Marble Jar crew also made some radio history this week: The band is the first (of hopefully many) to sign the ceiling of KSLG’s new Old Town studio, a tradition haphazardly conceived during their visit. Evidence of their appreciated vandalism in the pictures below. (Side note: Are you a Humboldt band doing cool things and making music that, more-or-less, fits into the KSLG vibe? Reach out at studio@kslg.com!)
Marble Jar’s album release party takes place at the Arcata Playhouse this Saturday at 7 p.m. The show features additional musical support from Crooked Teeth out of San Francisco and Unlikely from Fresno. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door and available here.
Rhi Marie interrogates Marble Jar
Marble Jar: Sean Weikal, Mitch Holmes and Peter Ricchio
Could the dams on the upper Eel River be coming down for good?
Late last week, PG&E
issued a 2,000-plus-page plan to decommission and demolish its two
dams on the upper stretches of the Eel River – Scott Dam and Cape
Horn Dam, in Lake County and Mendocino County, respectively. These
long-troubled dams were built over 100 years ago for the purpose of
generating electricity, and had the side effects of rerouting water
from the Eel River into the Russian River watershed. Also, they
blocked fish passage into a bunch of prime habitat.
It all might be a
lot more straightforward if not for the big interests that have grown
up around the Eel River water that has, for the last century, been
diverted into the Russian. When the dams first fired up, no one much
cared which way the water went to the sea. It was all about
generating power. But since then, agribusiness and development in the
Mendocino/Sonoma/Marin corridor have come to depend on that water for
their operations.
Under PG&E’s
plan – you can download it here in full – both dams would be
removed fairly rapidly. In their place, a new facility will be built
at the site of the former Cape Horn Dam to continue to supply water
to the Russian River watershed. This would be called the NERF – the
“New Eel-Russian Facility.” It’s not yet clear how much water
would be diverted at the NERF, but it could presumably be limited to
winter months and vary depending on the wetness of the year.
“The framework
here is that we will only agree to a diversion that has zero
ecological impacts on the Eel,” said Scott Greacen, conservation
director of Friends of the Eel, in a phone conversation with the
Outpost this morning.
The main thing, for
proponents of Eel River restoration, is to open up salmon and
steelhead habitat beyond the dams. Cape Horn has a very bad fish
ladder, and Scott Dam has no fish ladder at all. Removing those
barriers could
be a particular boon for summer-run steelhead, a threatened
population on the North Coast.
PG&E is giving
an online public presentation on their final decommissioning plan
tomorrow, Feb. 6, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Here’s
the link. Public comments on the document — which will be submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission — are due by March 3.
Shively Road is one of several roads closed due to the severe weather we are experiencing. Once again, a slide came down on Monday, Feb. 3 and the road remains closed at post mile 7.26.
With ongoing storm conditions, road crews are actively storm patrolling throughout the county, responding to immediate hazards as they arise. Crews are working hard to keep roads safe and passable during the storm, but will be addressing the slide today.
Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire and state Sen. Aisha Wahab talk before the start of a floor session at the Capitol Annex Swing Space in Sacramento on Oct. 7, 2024. Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMatters
Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire proposed Tuesday that state firefighters work year-round in place of the seasonal workforce the agency currently staffs for nine months each year. The increased duty for about 3,000 seasonal firefighters is estimated to cost at least $175 million.
“This escalating crisis has stretched firefighters dangerously thin,” McGuire said at a press conference in Sacramento, flanked by 21 other state senators and representatives from the union representing CalFire firefighters. “The threats to their health and safety along with the threats to local communities — they have never been greater.”
McGuire’s proposal is aimed at addressing California’s growing fire season — which typically lasted from June to October in the 1990s but is now considered to be from May through December, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, also known as CalFire.
CalFire has about 6,100 permanent employees, in addition to the 3,000 seasonal firefighters who are typically laid off between January and March.
“For three months out of the year we downstaff one-third of our engines because of an inadequate way of staffing CalFire in today’s world,” Tim Edwards, president of the union representing CalFire firefighters, said at the press conference. “There is no fire season in California. Fires are year-round, as we just witnessed” in the Los Angeles area.
The rare January wildfires in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades killed 24 people and damaged about 16,000 homes and businesses. The state brought in firefighters from Portland and Houston, as well as from Canada and Mexico.
CalFire did not have a comment on McGuire’s proposal. But Jesse Torres, a battalion chief and spokesperson for the agency, said that more staffing wouldn’t necessarily help fight the Southern California fires due to the high winds that caused flames to spread quickly. He said a larger, year-round staff would allow more prevention work and allow firefighters to take time off.
Under McGuire’s proposal, the seasonal firefighters would be transitioned to year-round employees, and the agency’s 356 fire engines would be operational all year.
The governor vetoed a similar bill last year by Sen. Tim Grayson, a Democrat from Antioch. Newsom wrote that the state was already in the process of hiring 2,000 additional year-round firefighters because of staffing levels required in the Cal Fire union’s most recent contract, and he wrote that state civil service laws would require the temporary firefighters to apply for the permanent positions.
Asked for comment on McGuire’s proposal, the governor’s office said it does not typically comment on pending legislation. McGuire said at the press conference that his new plan would address the governor’s concerns around the legality of transitioning from seasonal to full-time by creating a new employee classification.
“We were moving at a pace that nature didn’t wait on, and the wildfires didn’t wait on,” Grayson told CalMatters Monday about last year’s bill. “We are learning that climate change continues its march forward at a pace that we must catch up to.”
The office of Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas did not respond to a request for comment on the Senate proposal.
There’s also the cost question: McGuire said the effort would be funded by the state’s general fund and would require negotiations through the budget process.
The budget is not finalized until June, however – so McGuire said he hoped his plan could move more quickly.
“I think the vast majority of Californians would like to be able to see this investment yesterday,” said McGuire, who represents the state’s fire-prone North Coast from the Bay Area to the Oregon border.
McGuire’s proposal is the latest in the Legislature’s effort to help those impacted by the wildfires in Southern California.
The Assembly unveiled a wildfire-related package last month aimed at housing recovery, including a bill to pause most new building standards, one that would accelerate state housing permit reviews and another that would ease permitting in coastal areas for accessory dwelling units.
The Senate Republican Caucus, representing nine of the 40 state Senators, also unveiled its own wildfire-related proposals Tuesday. The GOP plan focused on water storage, tax credits to homeowners for efforts to fireproof their properties and longer sentences for fire-related crimes.
“While Senate Republicans are encouraged by the initial bipartisan nature of the Senate’s response to the Los Angeles wildfires thus far, they remain wary of potential partisan pitfalls for this critical legislation as the plethora of past efforts have largely been blocked by legislative Democrats and the governor in years past,” the caucus said in a statement.
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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.
It
is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Joy Gilberta
Pastori. Joy was born on April 5, 1938 to William and Isabella
Pasquini in Eureka. Joy passed away on January 26 at the age of 86 at
the Ida Emmerson Hospice House.
She
grew up in Eureka and Vallejo. She was the best sister to her
siblings Bill, John Lee and Judy. She was extremely proud that her
mother was the first female traffic officer in Humboldt County. Her
life changed forever on April 16, 1955 when she had a blind date with
Jim Pastori, who became the love of her life. They went on to marry
December 31, 1959 and were married almost 60 years. Together they
owned and operated Harris and K Market and Three Corners Market
for over 55 years. Their four kids — James, Cynthia, Rick and Yvette — were her world, and there isn’t anything she wouldn’t have done
for them. All her children agree that having her as a mother was the
greatest honor of all.
Joy
leaves behind a legacy of love and laughter that no one could match.
She brought joy no matter where she went. She was the best wife,
mother, grandmother, sister, Aunt and friend anyone could ask for.
She was her happiest when surrounded by family. She’s infamous for
her great cooking, holiday decor (especially Christmas) and love of
shopping. She treasured her many shopping trips with Charlene
Lundblade and Jeani Vallee. Her grandkids will always remember her as
the best back scratcher and their biggest fan. She and Jim traveled
far and wide to catch as many of their events as they could. Her
favorite place to be was their family summer home in Redway.
Thankfully, Jim didn’t know all the things she let her kids get away
with. She thrived in the role of “cool mom.” She was a mother
figure to many and touched a lot of hearts and lives.
Joy
leaves behind her loving children, Jim Pastori, Rick Pastori,
Cindy (Tom) Losa, Yvette (Jason) Pastori-Ables; grandchildren
Shelby (Jared) Lund, Jon (Kendra) Losa, James (Hayley) Pastori, Kendra
Losa, Nicole Pastori, Colton and Kylie Ables; great-granchildren
Dawsyn and Rye Pastori, Leo Lund and three more on the way; sister Judy Ford; sister-in-laws Yvonne Wahlund and Judy (Carl) Rorling; and
many nieces and nephews.
Joy
is preceded in death by her husband, Jim Pastori; parents William and
Isabella Pasquini; brothers Bill and John Lee Pasquini; and brother-in-law Randy Ford.
In
honor of Joy’s life, a celebration of life will be held on March 22 at 3 p.m. at Old Growth Cellars, 1945 Hilfiker Lane in Eureka. In lieu of
flowers, the family asks that donations be made to Hospice of
Humboldt.
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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Joy Pastori’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.
