Quick Take
The Santa Cruz City Council couldn’t make up its mind Tuesday on whether to allow the police department to pursue a grant for automated license plate readers, which would take photos of all license plates that enter the city and drive on its main roads. The police department sees license plate readers as a useful tool; many in the community see them as an invasive, dystopian technology.
The Santa Cruz Police Department asked the city council if it could lease automated license plate readers that would record each license plate that crosses the cameras’ lenses. Many residents and some organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, urged caution, saying they don’t want anything resembling an Orwellian surveillance state in the community.
Faced with a decision Tuesday, the Santa Cruz City Council fell somewhere between the wishes of law enforcement and those upon whom the laws are enforced, and pushed off making up its mind until at least its next meeting, on Dec. 12.
Automated license plate readers, or ALPRs, aren’t necessarily a unique tool for law enforcement agencies in 2023 — Watsonville and Scotts Valley use them, as do 23 other jurisdictions in the Bay Area alone, and scores more throughout California. However, they haven’t been unanimously embraced by all communities and law enforcement agencies, either. The Menlo Park City Council recently turned down a request for ALPRs from its police department, and the ACLU said the Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Office was presented with the option but decided against pursuing the technology. Sheriff Jim Hart did not immediately return Lookout’s request for comment.
The Santa Cruz Police Department wanted to lease 14 ALPRs from the company Flock Safety, which has installed ALPRs in thousands of communities across the country. The $84,000 needed for the program would come from a U.S. Department of Homeland Security program grant. Police Chief Bernie Escalante said the ALPRs would be used chiefly to locate stolen vehicles and missing people, and to investigate people wanted for serious crimes, though no definition of “serious” was provided.
The police department proposed placing an ALPR at each entryway into the city — think where Highway 9 becomes River Street to the north, or where Soquel Avenue meets Capitola Road to the east — as well as along major roads and boulevards. This means anyone who enters the city of Santa Cruz would unwillingly have their license plate scanned and collected in a database owned and operated by a private company.
Police could use the data proactively or reactively. For instance, if a stolen vehicle, or a car whose license plate is tied to an Amber Alert, passes an ALPR, the device’s system alerts the police department. Or, if a crime is committed, detectives can access the database of photos, search for a matching license plate and examine the vehicle’s recent whereabouts. A representative from Flock Safety told the city council that the police can access the database license plate images only if a crime is committed, and if the police furnish a criminal case number. After 30 days, Flock Safety says it purges its database.
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Lee Brokaw, a representative from the local ACLU chapter, said since the technology captures only license plate information, its upside is not worth the new level of surveillance power it affords to the police.
“In and of itself it tells us nothing and records everything,” Brokaw told the city council Tuesday, also warning that how city council members vote might be remembered by voters on Election Day. “A vote for this device will be remembered in November. … At the very least, hold a town meeting on this subject. This is something that will affect every single resident and visitor in this city.”
Vice Mayor Renée Golder offered the loudest support from the dais for the technology. She reasoned that modern society is already heavily surveilled, so license plate readers should not be cause for outcry.
“Everywhere we go we are being filmed, recorded, tracked,” Golder said. “To me, this tool is something our local law enforcement can use to help keep us safe.”
Golder’s comments drew some back-and-forth with Councilmember Sandy Brown, who said philosophically she could not support another level of surveillance. She cast doubt on the ALPRs’ effectiveness in solving or preventing crime, and said they were not worth the invasion of privacy. Golder called it “ridiculous” to be concerned with privacy when some communities, such as Capitola, have traffic light cameras. Brown emphasized that traffic light cameras record a license plate only after a traffic violation has been committed, and do not provide regular, constant and unprejudiced surveillance.
Golder, supported by Councilmember Martine Watkins, pushed for a vote to approve the lease; however, Mayor Fred Keeley jumped in to ask for more time, saying he could not support the ALPR program until he was confident in the police department’s policy against abuse of the technology. Where the existing policy used vague, wide-net terms, such as allowing the use of ALPRs in “routine patrol operations,” Keeley said he wanted more specific language. He also said he was concerned that the policy explicitly notes that “reasonable suspicion or probable cause is not required before using an ALPR.”
Keeley emphasized that he trusted Escalante and the people at the police department, but that “we are a city of laws, not a city of individuals.” He said he could come around to supporting the ALPRs after further discussions on the policy.
Another vote on the license plate readers is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 12. If the city council approves, the police department will be able to essentially apply for the grant. If the police department’s application is greenlit, a city staff report says the money would not be available until after October 2024.
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