ALPR Data - NM (Santa Fe Police Department)

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act, I hereby request the following records:

Part A: Information related to Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) data sharing.

1) The names of agencies and organizations with which the Agency shares ALPR data;
2) The names of agencies and organizations from which the Agency receives ALPR data;
3) The names of agencies and organizations with which the Agency shares “hot list” information;
4) The names of agencies and organizations from which the Agency receives “hot list” information;

Part B: Information Related to Numbers of “Detections” (plate scans) and “Hits” (plate scans that matched to a hotlist)

5) The aggregate number of detections collected during 2018;
6) The aggregate number of “hits” during 2018;
7) The aggregate number of detections collected during 2019;
8) The aggregate number of “hits” during 2019.

I am part of a team of students and journalists compiling data on ALPR use from agencies around the country. This information will be useful to academics, journalists, members of the public, and other law enforcement agencies. So far, hundreds of agencies across the United States have already provided this data. You can see many of the previous results here: https://www.eff.org/pages/explore-alpr

For items 1-4: This information is easily available within the Agency’s Vigilant Solutions LEARN system. The simplest way to extract this data is to generate an “Agency Data Sharing Report” PDF file from within LEARN. To do this, a user may simply go to the “Sharing” section of LEARN and select “Output Report.” A CSV/XLS file containing these records would also satisfy this request.

The instructions for extracting this data is described on pages 62-63 of the LEARN Agency Manager Guide, which may be found at this link:
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3860685-LEARN-5-1-Agency-Manager-Guide.html

For items 5-8: This information is easily available within the Agency’s Vigilant Solutions LEARN system. The simplest way to extract this data is to generate a “Dashboard Hit Ratio Report” PDF file from within LEARN. We would prefer the data for each year to be provided separately.

The instructions for extracting this data is described on pages 78-79 of the LEARN Agency Manager Guide, which may be found at this link:
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3860685-LEARN-5-1-Agency-Manager-Guide.html

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 15 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Dave Maass

Mr Gurulé,

Please find attached a copy of a data sharing report from the Byron Police Department. On page 19, you will that Byron PD is sharing data with the Santa Fe, NM Police Department.

While it may be true that Santa Fe PD doesn't have ALPR devices, this document (and others that we have obtained from other agencies) show that Santa Fe PD is a subscriber to a system that provides ALPR data from other agencies. This means that while items 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 do not apply to your agency, items 2 and 4 do apply. You should be able to access this information, which shows who is sharing data and "hits" with Santa Fe PD, through your Vigilant Solutions account.

Please let me know if I can be of further assistance in processing this request.

Thanks,

Dave

Thank you for the update. Byron is not the only agency that lists Santa Fe PD as receiving data. You should check to see who in the department may have signed up for a LEARN/PlateScan trial or software package through Vigilant Solutions.

If it turns out that there is no one, then I strongly recommend that your agency reach out to Vigilant Solutions to get your account removed from the system, since it could indicate that a former employee is accessing ALPR data through SFPD credentials. This is a major problem identified by the California State Auditor last month.