Clutching pearls over License Plate Readers

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Clutching pearls over License Plate Readers

February 21, 2026

At least ten Peninsula cities and the Sheriff’s department have installed Flock license plate readers, including ours. The recent report in the Daily Post that several federal agencies were able to access Mountain View’s plate data has that city council and Woodside’s council “unnerved”. It makes for a good headline, but when you read the actual piece, it appears that ATF, GSA and two Air Force bases were able to access photos due to a configuration error by Mountain View.

I don’t know about GSA or the USAF, but if ATF was looking for a particular plate I for one would like them to have that ability. The Mountain View PD and, I’m sure others, told their council they would have strict privacy protocols in place to prevent access, but what privacy does a vehicle have on public streets? Reading the pearl clutching headlines brought back vivid memories of our own B’game incident that used LPRs to find an attempted kidnapping suspect who tried to grab a woman a couple blocks from my house. You can remind yourself here, but the snippet from November 2024 noted

The victim screamed for help as another vehicle passed which startled the suspect, causing him to flee the scene. A nearby witness heard the commotion and observed the suspect’s vehicle speeding away. This witness was able to provide a partial license plate number. Further investigation utilizing local Automated License Plate Reader cameras yielded photographs of the suspect vehicle and a complete license plate.

The suspect was arrested in Belmont four hours later. Last week in San Jose

A man who recently tried to rob a San Jose bank by handing the teller a handwritten note demanding money was arrested within an hour, authorities said. Police said victims and witnesses provided officers with descriptions of a suspect and potential vehicle, and within about seven minutes of the initial call, officers in the SJPD Real Time Intelligence Center found the car and were getting updates through the city’s system of surveillance cameras.

I’m often disappointed at how slowly the Wheels of Justice turn after an arrest. Some cases that look open-and-shut take years. Let’s not gum up the Wheels on our streets at the arrest phase. If a city wants to tighten access security by outside agencies, just get the configuration right.

Posted in City Council, Crime, Police Report

5 responses to “Clutching pearls over License Plate Readers”

Handle Bard

February 24, 2026

If Mountain View and the Santa Clara county sheriff disable their cameras shouldn’t we let them know that we won’t be sharing any of our camera data with them when they really need it? Like when some cyclist gets hit by a car that takes off.
Burlingame Resident

February 25, 2026

Cases in other parts of the country have declared that the data collected by these cameras is a public record so obtainable via freedom of information requests. This has not been tested in courts in California yet but there is no reason to think rulings here are any different. Bottom line: anyone can request to know when you passed any of these readers.
Amazing

February 25, 2026

Mostly aggregated, non-identifiable data, or information regarding the location/number of scans (without specific plate data), may be available for public transparency.
Joe

March 23, 2026

The Financial Times added some much-needed context to this LPR discussion this week by noting that Flock has 6,000 law enforcement customers. A grand total of 53 in 20 states have deactivated or rejected the cameras. (that’s 0.88%).

And Richmond has apparently learned it’s lesson the hard way per the Merc:

RICHMOND — Driven by public safety concerns, automatic license plate readers will be turned back on in Richmond, months after they were shut down over privacy risks.

In addition to turning the cameras back on, a 4-3 vote by the City Council on Tuesday extended the city’s contract with Flock Safety, one of the largest surveillance technology companies in the nation, through the end of the year.

Police Chief Tim Simmons said he shut down the license plate reader system in mid-November after learning a national lookup feature allowed any agency using the Flock system to access a city’s data by searching a full license plate number.

Simmons said he’s held numerous meetings with Flock leadership, and negotiated new contract terms he believes will provide additional safeguards against improper access.

In addition to disabling its national lookup feature for all of California and prohibiting the formation of data sharing relationships between agencies inside and out of the state, Simmons said the company has also agreed to pay a $290,000 fee for any unauthorized data disclosures.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/03/18/richmond-extends-flock-contract-agrees-to-turn-cameras-back-on/

Apparently, vehicle theft numbers jumped dramatically.
Joe

May 6, 2026

We need to keep track of successes so that the pearl-clutchers don’t mess things up. Per the DJ yesterday:

San Mateo police assisted a group that aims to catch child predators by acting as minor decoys with an arrest of a previously convicted sex offender Sunday morning.

The group wished to remain anonymous, but notified the police department they were engaging with a man through a decoy under the ruse of proposed sexual activity. Plans were solidified and the man agreed to meet a decoy in San Mateo.

Using the suspect’s phone number and open-source data, the organization was able to provide identifying information on the man, who police determined was James Carey, 43, of Pleasant Hill.

Police located a vehicle registered to him and used the automated license plate reader database to determine Carey was in fact en route to San Mateo from the East Bay. Police located his vehicle while he continued inside the mall. Earlier, Carey had sent a picture of himself to the decoy, so we were able to use that to further confirm his identity.
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One has to assume “the mall” is Hillsdale mall.

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