SB34 ALPR Data Sharing (Emeryville Police Department)

Dear Custodian of Records:

This letter constitutes a request under the California Public Records Act ("CPRA") from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, submitted with the assistance of MuckRock News.
We request the following records related to Automated License Plate Readers ("ALPRs") and your law enforcement agency ("Agency").

Part A - Information related to ALPR data sharing.
A1. The names of agencies and organizations with which the Agency shares ALPR data;
A2. The names of agencies and organizations from which the Agency receives ALPR data;
A3. The names of agencies and organizations with which the Agency shares “hot list” information;
A4. The names of agencies and organizations from which the Agency receives “hot list” information.

The information requested in items A1-A4 is readily available for extraction through the ALPR software you use. For example, with Vigilant Solutions/Motorola Solutions, this data can be exported easily using the Data Sharing Report function. With Flock Safety, this information is available through the transparency portal function. Other software, such as BOSS, has similar functionality.

Most agencies have encountered little difficulty in providing this information (see below). In a small number of cases, an agency has interpreted items A1-A4 as requesting the creation of a record that does not exist. We disagree: this data is maintained by your software, can be exported through software your agency has already purchased, and is therefore subject to CPRA.

However, should you disagree, you may alternatively produce the following records:

A5. All agreements, memoranda of understanding, requests, or other certifying documents that external agencies have signed to comply with Sec 1798.90.52(b) for accessing your agency's ALPR data. These documents are also often required under the "Releasing ALPR Data" subsection of a California law enforcement agency's SB 34 policy.

A6. All agreements, memoranda of understanding, requests, or other certifying documents that your agency has signed pursuant to Sec 1798.90.52(b) to access other agencies' ALPR data.

A7. All "records of access" required by Sec. 1798.90.52(a) for the periods January 1, 2021 until the date of processing this request.

Items A5-A7 are not necessary if your agency provides the information requested in items A1-A4. We feel that items A1-A4 are more focused and would require less labor from your agency to produce.

Part B - Information Related to Numbers of “Detections” (plate scans) and “Hits” (plate scans that matched to a hotlist)
B1. The aggregate number of "detections" collected during 2023.

B2. The aggregate number of “hits” during 2023.

B3. The aggregate number of "detections" from January 1, 2024 until the date this request is processed. If your agency has a retention period shorter than 1 year, please provide whatever data is available based on your retention period. For example, most Flock Safety systems may not have this data beyond 30 days.

B4. The aggregate number of “hits” from January 1, 2024 until the date this request is processed. If your agency has a retention period shorter than 1 year, please provide whatever data is available based on your retention period.

The information requested in items B1-B4 is readily available through the ALPR software you use. For example, with Vigilant Solutions/Motorola Solutions, this data can be exported easily using the Hit Ratio Report function. With Flock Safety, this information is available through the transparency portal function. Other software, such as BOSS, has similar functionality. As noted above, this information exists within your system and can be easily exported with existing software.

Please note that more than 80 California law enforcement agencies have provided the information requested in Parts A1-A4 and B1-B4 in previous years. For your reference we have included a table (attached) with the names of the agencies that have historically provided these records.

CPRA requires you to undertake reasonable efforts to locate responsive records and to work in good faith with requesters to respond to their request. See CYAC v. City of National City, 220 Cal.App.4th 1385, 1430 (2013). Thus under the CPRA you are obligated to conduct a reasonable search and cannot deny a request merely because it might generate a large volume of records.

We ask that you please respond to this request within 10 days either by providing all the requested records or by providing a written response setting forth the legal authority on which you rely in withholding or redacting any document, as well as stating when documents will be made available. Should you choose to withhold or reject this request, we ask that you provide an explanation of why your agency is responding differently compared to the many others that have complied with our request.

We also request that any records maintained in an electronic format be provided in that same format (such as a PDF, CSV or XLS file), to avoid copying costs.

However, should you be unable to do so, EFF will reimburse you for the direct costs of copying these records (if you elect to charge for copying) plus postage. If you anticipate that these costs will exceed $25.00, or that the time needed to copy the records will delay their release, please contact me so that I can arrange to inspect the documents or decide which documents I wish to have copied. Please also provide an invoice and a cost breakdown of the fee estimate. If the fees are less than $25.00, please copy and send the records and invoice as soon as possible, and we will promptly pay the required costs.

Thank you for your consideration of this request. If you have any questions or concerns, or if I can provide any clarification that will help identify responsive documents or focus this request, please do not hesitate to contact me at ALPR@eff.org.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Pinsof
Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation