Privacy Fears Put Palos Verdes License Plate Cameras In Spotlight

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, CA — Privacy concerns surrounding automated license plate readers took center stage in Rancho Palos Verdes Tuesday as residents questioned how vehicle data could be misused while sheriff's officials and Flock Safety defended the cameras as a valuable crime-fighting tool.

The discussion came after Patch reported Tuesday that at least two local homeowners associations have been sued over automated license plate reader, or ALPR, cameras.

The City Council received an informational report on the technology, which is used through a Peninsula-wide law enforcement network and separate Flock Safety cameras leased by some neighborhoods and HOAs.

City staff estimates that 10 Rancho Palos Verdes neighborhoods have received city financial assistance to install 19 Flock cameras.

Sheriff's Captain Defends Safeguards

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Capt. Kimberly Guerrero told the council that personnel must be authorized and trained to use ALPR systems and may access information only for legitimate law enforcement purposes. Searches are logged and subject to audits.

She also stressed that an ALPR alert is an investigative lead that must be independently verified before law enforcement action is taken.

“Human judgment remains our greatest safeguard,” Guerrero said.

Guerrero described a recent porch piracy investigation in which detectives identified a suspect vehicle and entered it into the Flock system. A subsequent camera hit generated a lead that resulted in an arrest.

Residents Raise Privacy Concerns

Resident Sharon Newberg told the council that about a decade ago, while discussing license plate readers with another real estate attorney, she gave him her license plate number. Within minutes, she said, he sent her a photograph of her car and identified where it had been at a specific time and date.

“He obviously got that information from somebody who should not have provided it to him because he doesn't have access to that information as a real estate lawyer,” Newberg said.

Newberg called the technology “overwhelmingly intrusive.”

“It boils down to trust,” she said. “I'm a person who's been around the block, and I don't have a whole lot of trust.”

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Bia Campbell, public affairs manager at Flock Safety, told the council the company has identified about 35 verified cases of misuse nationwide and said safeguards are designed to detect suspicious searches.

Campbell said Flock maintains an audit trail of searches even after underlying images and associated metadata are deleted. Its system can flag activity such as an officer repeatedly searching the same license plate or conducting substantially more searches than usual.

“If an officer is misusing a police department system, our system will be able to generate accountability,” Campbell said.

Resident Kit Song, whose neighborhood uses Flock cameras, offered a different perspective, saying the cameras had received a positive response from his community and that the neighborhood created and posted a privacy policy after learning of the requirement.

“I think these sorts of sessions are good,” Song said. “They encourage dialogue between all of our community members, which is healthy.”

Legal Questions Remain

The debate comes as Rancho Palos Verdes grapples with legal questions surrounding neighborhood ALPR systems. As Patch reported, city staff recently became aware of at least two lawsuits against local HOAs involving the cameras.

Two California appellate courts have also reached differing conclusions this year over what constitutes sufficient harm to sue over alleged violations of the state's ALPR privacy requirements. City staff said the rulings “seem to point in opposite directions.”

Rancho Palos Verdes has asked state Sen. Ben Allen and Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi to review the law and consider potential remedies for unintended consequences affecting HOAs.

The council unanimously voted to receive and file the reports. Mayor David Seo also asked staff to explore holding another informational meeting about ALPR technology for residents and HOAs.