In her department’s annual report on surveillance technologies to the City Council this month, Berkeley Police Chief Jennifer Louis noted a tightening of data security practices in an attempt to prevent its use in federal immigration enforcement cases.
Berkeley police limited access to the city’s automated license plate reader data after seeing the city appeared in three statewide searches that mentioned U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Customs and Border Patrol in the search terms within the Flock database that it and other agencies used for automated license plate readers.
At the time, Berkeley’s data was available to all California law enforcement agencies that signed a letter agreeing to follow a state law that bans the data from being used for immigration purposes. The California Highway Patrol submitted a search that included the term “ICE,” and two other law enforcement searches included the term “CBP.”
Access to Berkeley’s data is now limited to Bay Area agencies plus Sacramento County.
Berkeley police also restricted the use of certain immigration-related keywords allowed in data searches and began monitoring the searches more regularly in order to quickly limit access to other departments they suspect of violating their policy of not aiding immigration officials.
Report details use of license plate readers
Berkeley has 52 stationary license plate reader cameras placed throughout the city that were used in more than 50 arrests and the recovery of 40 stolen cars between Oct. 1, 2024, and Sept. 30 of this year, according to the report.
These stationary license plate readers initially cost the city $179,500, and they pay $165,000 per year for continued use.
Parking enforcement officers also use 22 license plate readers, reportedly scanning 2,901,622 license plates between Oct. 1, 2024, and Sept. 30, resulting in 41,734 citations. Berkeley’s Transportation Division spends $51,720 on their annual upkeep.
All Berkeley police officers also have body cameras, which captured more than 67,800 videos between Oct. 1, 2024, and Sept, 30, resulting in almost 15,900 hours of video.
The annual cost for the program is $222,442, including camera replacements, software and access to Axon’s secure digital evidence management system.
Berkeley has video surveillance cameras located at San Pablo Park, the Berkeley Marina and the intersection of University Avenue and Sixth Street, the video from which is stored for 180 days after recording.
The camera footage was accessed a total of 56 times for cases including traffic incidents, robberies, property crimes, an assault with a deadly weapon and a homicide.
Upkeep of the program costs the city $13,443.20 annually.
Drones aid high-risk searches
The Police Department used unmanned aerial systems, also known as drones, five times in the reporting period. Berkeley does not own a drone, but Antioch, Oakland and San Francisco police departments deployed their own drones to aid Berkeley police.
The drones were all used to help officers deploying what they described as high-risk search and arrest warrants.
Two of these cases involved homicide suspects, one involved a burglary suspect with an alleged history of firearms possession, another involved an armed robbery suspect, and the fifth use situation does not include details about the alleged crimes associated with the warrants.
There was no cost to Berkeley police related to drone usage.
Berkeley’s Street Level Imagery Project is a 3D model of the city’s streets and other infrastructure. City staff use it for things like documenting maintenance and infrastructure planning, among other uses, according to the report.
The city spends $4,110 annually to keep the program going, but the initial setup cost Berkeley more than $228,000.
Berkeley police used GPS monitors on cars four times, with judicial approval.
One use was in relation to a shooting, and the remaining three were associated with robberies. The annual cost of the data service associated with this technology, CovertTrack Stealth V GPS, is $1,834.53.
Chief Louis’ full report can be viewed online.