Monterey County supervisors have ordered their sheriff to pull the plug on a network of automated license plate readers known as Flock cameras — over the objections of the department.
“I want our community to understand that the impact extends well beyond the loss of the 63 cameras operated by the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office,” Undersheriff Keith Boyd, the department’s second-in-command, said in a statement Friday.
“Through the network, our investigators have been able to access information from participating agencies throughout Monterey County and from hundreds of participating law-enforcement agencies across California,” he said. “Crime does not stop at a city limit or a county line.”
Data misuse and privacy concerns
The leased cameras capture plate numbers and can share data with other law enforcement agencies in search of stolen cars, getaway vehicles or autos carrying a missing or wanted person. But opponents worry that they can be used for surveillance of immigrants or other vulnerable people.
Many Bay Area cities and counties have been reexamining their contracts with Flock Safety, citing worries about potential violations of state law that limits the sharing of license plate data.
Supervisors voted 3-2 Tuesday to reject the Sheriff’s Office’s request to negotiate a new agreement to continue using the cameras. The decision means the Sheriff’s Office must remove the cameras within 60 days, Boyd said.
Investigative benefits and rural safety
“A vehicle associated with a crime in an unincorporated part of Monterey County may later appear on a camera in another part of our county or hundreds of miles away elsewhere in California,” he said. “That information can give investigators a direction to follow, help identify patterns of travel, and create opportunities to work with other agencies.”
“With the termination of our access, we lose more than cameras along Monterey County roadways,” Boyd said. “We lose that broader investigative reach.”
The action comes amid more than 200 accounts of misuse of automated license plate reader data, according to the Institute for Justice, a libertarian, nonprofit public interest law firm based in Arlington, Va.
Boyd said residents of rural and unincorporated areas, where greater law-enforcement presence isn’t financially possible, have particularly benefitted from the license-plate readers.
“They then asked us a reasonable question: if we cannot place a deputy here around the clock, what alternatives are available to help protect our community?” he said.