How Flock and ALPR Cameras Work — And What Poway Residents Should Know

Public safety is one of my highest priorities. Technology can be an important tool in helping law enforcement prevent and solve crime, and Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR) is one of those tools.

But whenever government uses technology that records information about vehicles moving through our community, residents deserve to understand how it works, what it can do, and what safeguards are in place.

What is an ALPR camera?

Automated License Plate Recognition cameras are specialized cameras that capture images of vehicles and license plates as they pass.

The system can read the license plate and associate it with information such as the date, time and location where the vehicle was observed. Depending on the system and camera configuration, it can also identify characteristics of the vehicle.

Flock Safety is one company that provides this technology. San Diego County has used Flock technology for its license-plate-reader program, and the County's procurement records document a Flock Safety bid for license-plate readers.

The San Diego County Sheriff's Office says ALPR technology has been deployed in its contract cities, including Poway, and is being used as an investigative tool to help locate stolen vehicles, missing persons and suspects and investigate serious crimes.

What happens when a vehicle passes a camera?

In simple terms:

Vehicle passes → camera captures an image → the system reads the license plate and identifies vehicle information → the information is stored → authorized law-enforcement personnel can search the information for legitimate investigative purposes.

ALPR systems can also compare license plates against law-enforcement databases and generate alerts when a vehicle matches a hot list.

For example, if police are looking for a stolen vehicle, investigators can enter the license plate into the system. If the vehicle has previously been captured by an ALPR camera, investigators may be able to determine when and where it was seen.

That can provide an important investigative lead when time matters.

ALPR is not facial recognition

This distinction is important.

Flock's current system identifies license plates and vehicles and says it does not use facial recognition or identify people by characteristics such as gender or race.

That does not mean there are no privacy considerations.

A record showing that a particular vehicle was at a particular location at a particular time can provide information about someone's movements. That is why the rules governing the technology are just as important as the technology itself.

What does the system actually capture?

It is important not to oversimplify ALPR as simply a machine that takes pictures of license plates.

The County's Flock procurement documentation describes capabilities including license-plate recognition, vehicle searches, hot-list alerts, custom alerts and searches of captured images.

The Sheriff's Office, however, describes its ALPR system more narrowly in its public materials: ALPRs are specialized cameras that read and capture license-plate information from passing vehicles and do not record or capture video.

That distinction matters. Residents should know exactly what equipment is being used in Poway and what information it is configured to collect.

How long is the information retained?

This is another area where it is important to distinguish between different systems and policies.

The San Diego County Sheriff's ALPR policy states that LPR data is retained for one year from the time the record is captured. If the data is relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation, it can be retained as part of that investigation according to the applicable records-retention requirements. However, the Sheriff's current Safe Streets webpage says ALPR data is kept for 30 days

The Sheriff's Office has also publicly stated that its ALPR data is restricted to authorized law-enforcement personnel, that audits are conducted annually, and that data sharing is limited to local law-enforcement agencies through secure agreements.

That is different from the current San Diego Police Department Flock system, which publicly reports a 30-day retention period. SDPD's Flock transparency portal also states that system access requires a valid reason and that access records are retained indefinitely.

The lesson is simple: there is no single retention period for every Flock or ALPR system. The policy governing the particular system matters.

For Poway, the Sheriff's policy is therefore especially important.

Why does this technology matter?

I have seen firsthand how technology like this can be valuable in a time-critical investigation.

One example involved a child-abduction investigation handled by the San Diego Police Department. Investigators had information about a suspect vehicle and were able to use ALPR technology as part of the effort to locate that vehicle.

The technology helped provide investigators with a lead that could be acted upon quickly.

That is the potential of ALPR at its best: taking information investigators already have about a vehicle and helping them determine where that vehicle may have been seen.

ALPR does not replace police officers, detectives, witnesses or traditional investigative work. It is another tool that can help connect those pieces together.

And when a child's safety is at stake, minutes can matter.

Public safety and privacy are not opposing goals

I don't believe Poway has to choose between public safety and individual privacy.

We can have both.

Our Sheriff's deputies need effective tools to investigate stolen vehicles, burglaries, robberies, kidnappings, hit-and-run crashes and other crimes.

ALPR can provide information that otherwise might not be available.

At the same time, government should establish reasonable limits on how the technology is used.

Residents should be able to understand:

• Where ALPR cameras are located.

• Who can access the information.

• What constitutes a legitimate search.

• How long information is retained.

• Which other law-enforcement agencies can access or receive the information.

• How searches are audited.

• What happens when the rules are violated.

Use technology to make Poway safer — but establish the rules

My position is straightforward:

We should use proven technology to help keep Poway safe while protecting the privacy and rights of the people who live here.

The question should not be whether we use technology.

The question should be whether we use it responsibly, transparently and with appropriate safeguards.

As a candidate for Poway City Council, I believe residents deserve to know what technology is being used in their community, who controls it, who can access it, how long the information is retained, and what rules govern its use.

We should never be afraid to use a good tool to protect our community.

But we should also never be afraid to ask tough questions about how that tool is used.

Public safety and individual rights should not be competing priorities. Good policy should protect both.

That is the balance I believe Poway residents expect—and deserve.