Rohnert Park Slashes Flock Data Limit To 30 Days Over Privacy Concerns

ROHNERT PARK-COTATI, CA —Responding to escalating concern over privacy and police surveillance, members of the Rohnert Park City Council voted to cut the number of days police keep data gathered by the city’s FLOCK automated license plate reader cameras.

The 4-0-1 vote on Tuesday immediately reduces the period from 2 years to 30 days.

The resolution was placed on the agenda by Council member Samantha Rodriguez and took effect immediately. Council member Jackie Elward was absent.

The city operates 30 automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras, 10 of which are funded through the Sonoma County Auto Theft Task Force. The city funds the remaining 20 through a contract with Flock Safety.

Rohnert Park officials said the system is used as an investigative tool to recover stolen vehicles, locate missing or at-risk people, and identify vehicles connected to criminal activity. The cameras are installed in public rights-of-way and capture images of license plates and related location data, not personal identifying information, according to staff.

However, Specific California laws apply to license plate reader systems and the data they collect — because ALPR data can reveal a vehicle's location over time. It is structured, location-linked data tied to specific vehicles and, when cross-referenced with DMV or other records, potentially to individuals.

Agencies must also adopt privacy and usage policies specifically detailing retention periods, who can access the data, and how it’s protected. The data is generally restricted from being shared outside California public agencies, though not all have complied with the law.

Many agencies — including Santa Rosa and Petaluma — limit data retention for license plate reader systems to 30 days. Rohnert Park's schedule technically allowed the data to be kept for two years, according to staff reports.

Under Rohnert Park's new policy, ALPR data will be automatically deleted after 30 days unless it is needed as evidence in a criminal or civil case or is subject to a legal records request.

The Rohnert Park City Attorney included several additional technical items in the vote. One is to update the records rules to clearly specify what paperwork it must retain when it receives state or federal grant money.

The city will also create two new record categories to clearly separate ordinary video recordings from license plate reader data, each with its own legally appropriate retention period.

This new category covers things like surveillance videos and building security camera footage. By putting these videos in their own category, the city can now store them for one year, which aligns with state law for routine video monitoring. After a year, they can delete the footage.

A new category applies specifically to automated license plate reader data, which should now be automatically deleted after 30 days—unless it’s tied to a criminal or civil case, a records request, or another legal obligation. If it is needed, the relevant data must be formally preserved as evidence, administrators said.

These are technical but important cleanups to improve the city’s paper trail when grant money is used to pay for equipment.

Every jurisdiction along the Highway 101 corridor in Sonoma County and most across the Bay Area use license plate reader technology. Grants have helped pay for them, but not every agency has a contract with Flock, an Atlanta-based company whose investors now include Marc Andreessen, Peter Thiel, Tiger Global Management, Bedrock Capital, Meritech Capital Partners, Matrix Partners, and Y Combinator.

Flock dominates the license plate reader technology market in part because its business model relies on leasing devices and full-service packages to agencies rather than selling them.