Privacy Concerns Stall LAPD Plan For License Plate Cameras On Streetlights

LOS ANGELES, CA — The Los Angeles City Council Tuesday delayed a three- month pilot program to place automatic license plate readers on street lights, citing concerns with privacy and data collection policies.

In a 10-4 vote, the City Council approved a motion introduced by Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez and Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson to assert jurisdiction over a recent decision by the Board of Police Commissioners. Council members Bob Blumenfield, John Lee, Traci Park and Monica Rodriguez opposed the matter.

The pilot program was referred to the council's Public Safety Committee, with the goal of having the item brought back to the full council for final approval no later than Oct. 23.

In September, the Board of Police Commissioners voted 3-0 to approve a new 10-year, $235 million contract with Axon Enterprise. The Los Angeles Police Department uses automated license plate reader technology, known as ALPRs, to identify stolen vehicles and vehicles associated with wanted suspects. Axon Enterprise and Motorola Solutions provide ALPR technology or related services to the department.

However, Tuesday's vote had more to do with a separate contract with Axon that the Board of Police Commissioners also approved.

LAPD and Axon are working on a three-month pilot program that would place surveillance cameras on streetlights around the city to collect more license plate data.

The streetlight initiative would be conducted at no cost to the city over a three-month period by Axon. A subcontractor, Ubicquia Inc., would install the cameras.

The cameras would be clamped onto the tops of streetlights and draw power from the lights' electricity, according to Ubicquia's website. The company says its AI systems can identify vehicles, license plates, pedestrians and other objects that pass into view.

Blumenfield urged his colleagues to move forward with the pilot program because they had spent time and money to get cameras up. He lauded the LAPD for updating their policies related to ALPR technology, noting department officials cleaned up problematic provisions.

"I would be happy to support a motion for us to examine the policy and to bring it to committee and have all that discussion," Blumenfield said. "But I don't want to slow down this pilot process that has been in the works for a very long time, and they've done good work on."

LAPD Chief Information Officer Dean Gialamas, who also serves as the commanding officer of the department's Information Technology Bureau, told council members that they primarily use ALPRs for vehicle and license plate information. He emphasized that it does not include facial recognition, biometric identification, audio recording or any person-focused analytics.

"It's a test of technology to see whether it suits the needs of the department as well as the needs of the communities who are asking for them," Gialamas said, referring to the pilot program.

Gialamas emphasized the the Axon contract would serve as the template for all ALPR vendors moving forward. He added the department has updated its data-retention and data-sharing policies to strengthen civil liberties and privacy protections.

LAPD's updated policy would be implemented at the same time as the pilot program.

Changes to the department's policy on ALPR consist of the following:

• Ensure there is no unauthorized secondary use, no sharing of information, and that the city preserves complete and total ownership of the data;
• Only certain officers will have access to the captured data and the department plans to reduce the time frame in which officers access to the ALPR system;
• The department is expected to only allow data sharing with adjacent counties such as the police departments of Torrance, Huntington Park, Hayward, Signal, Simi Valley, La Mesa, Glendale, Alhambra, West Covina, Livermore, and the sheriff's departments of L.A. County, Madera County, and San Luis Obispo, among others;
• LAPD officials are also expected to adjust the frequency of audits.
• Officers who are authorized to access the system will need to be approved by a supervisor, and take online video training, as well as a test.

LAPD Cmdr. Randy Goddard, assistant commanding officer for the department's Information Technology Bureau, explained they need to understand the full capabilities of the ALPR technology.

"The vendor (Axon) is dramatically adjusting the back end of their user interface and the data that we can pull to do inspections and do audits and look for anomalies," Goddard said. "So what this pilot gives us is the opportunity to start this process to work with the vendor to make the technology better, so there is more oversight and accountability, to make sure it's being used in the appropriate way."

Councilman Soto-Martinez argued that it should be other way around, where policy dictates use.

"I disagree. I think the policy is more important that practicing, without this body describing what they want to see," Soto-Martinez said.

"I just believe that the oversight and policy needs to be put first, and then the vendor should be able to meet that or we find anther vendor," the councilman added.

Councilwoman Park argued that need for the technology is urgent and it's important to have it up and running sooner rather than later. She further stated the department needs more resources, pointing to upcoming mega events such as the Superbowl and the Olympic Games.

Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez agreed with Soto-Martinez's sentiments. She said it is important for the department to engage with them and residents of the city on this extremely sensitive and powerful technology that is already affecting so many communities across the city.

"I've seen pilots turn into permanent programs without it ever coming back to us. To hear that this pilot is moving forward without the strong regulations and guardrails that are necessary," Hernandez said.

The council members say the use of ALPRs is of significant public interest and concern, pointing to cases in which officers in other states have used the technology to stalk former romantic partners and to investigate women seeking reproductive health services in communities where they do not live.

They also cited other examples in which partial or incorrect data led law enforcement officials to make aggressive stops of people who were not suspected of crimes.

Ultimately, the matter was delayed for further discussion.

Meanwhile, the $235 million contract with Axon is expected to provide more than 1,600 patrol-car cameras with automated license plate reader technology. Axon would also provide thousands of replacement body-worn cameras, Tasers, cloud storage for video footage and new artificial intelligence features that would create first drafts of police reports based on body-worn camera recordings.

"Draft One is Axon's AI-assisted report-writing capability," according to an LAPD memo. "It uses BWC (body-worn camera) audio and transcript content to produce a first-draft narrative for officer review."

The memo states that Draft One would be released in a phased rollout to officers in January, after the contract is executed and the department is ready.

In July, the Board of Police Commissioners suspended the LAPD's use of its ALPR vendor, Flock Safety, citing concerns about data collection and retention. The LAPD's three-year contract with Flock expired that month, though officials have said they are working on a new agreement that would better define and enforce data-security and privacy protections.

The decision came in the wake of an audit from the LAPD's Inspector General on the use of ALPR technology. Findings of the report found LAPD officers had improperly investigated 161 people who had their cars flagged as stolen in the ALPR system but were not actually stolen.

By Jose Herrera, City News Service