Sonoma Police want to monitor license plates, opponents raise privacy concerns

Sonoma police want to build a “wall around the city” with license plate readers in response to a rise in stolen cars and property crimes, Chief Brandon Cutting told the Sonoma City Council on June 7.

Cutting proposed the city purchase 19 automated license plate readers which could help police track down suspect vehicles. But opponents fear the law enforcement technology could be used to violate drivers’ privacy.

“It's not about preventing crime as much as solving crime when it occurs. Car theft, catalytic converter thefts, burglaries — they occur everywhere,” Cutting said. “Sonoma is not a place where crime resides. Sonoma is as a place where crime is a visitor.”

The proposed license plate readers come from Flock Safety, a nationwide public safety operating system that is commonly used by cities, law enforcement, businesses and schools. The cameras, if purchased, would cost the city $57,000 per year for a two- or three-year term, Cutting said.

Flock Safety’s cameras are motion-activated and only capture the vehicle’s front and back license plate, according to Cutting. For residents like Fred Allebach, the purchase should be considered with caution as such surveillance could be used as a “Trojan horse” to monitor residents.

“The city needs to postpone a vote, more widely publicize this and see what people think,” Allebach wrote to the Index-Tribune. “There are legit tensions between what (law enforcement) wants and what the public consents to grant.”

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, an international digital rights nonprofit based in San Francisco, characterizes automated license plate readers as a form of “mass surveillance” because the cameras take images of every vehicle that passes.

“The technology poses a threat to locational privacy,” the foundation states on its website. “In aggregate the data can reveal detailed driving patterns or identify the drivers who frequent particular locations, such as protests, gun shows and health care facilities.”

However, data recorded by such machines must abide by a policy of the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, which stipulates that law enforcement can only access license plate information related to a criminal investigation — barring access for information on protests and other potential applications.

Flock Safety is currently utilized by numerous North Bay cities, including Vallejo and Healdsburg. Last summer, following a series of catalytic converter thefts in Sonoma, Cutting said police sent out suspect’s partial license plate information to local law enforcement agencies.

“Healdsburg ended up catching them because Healdsburg has this system in a very similar fashion to the way I want to design it,” Cutting said.

Cutting described Sonoma Valley as a geographical island with limited deputies to provide law enforcement. The use of automated cameras can help multiply the presence of law enforcement for a lesser expense than adding more deputies, he said.

“We only have a few deputies on patrol. It adds access to every entrance and exit to the city,” Cutting said. “Without this type of system, the best I have is the luck of the nighttime deputy that observes it.”

Cutting used examples of a home invasion in Boyes Hot Springs in March and the theft of $24,000 in jewelry from Halem and Co de Sonoma in December as two ways that automated license plate readers could have benefited city police.

Sonoma Valley Chamber of Commerce CEO Mark Bodenhamer spoke at the city council meeting on behalf of the business community, who he said are concerned about the rising number of thefts and property crimes impacting businesses.

“I was frankly, really blown away by the amount of crime that is happening,” Bodenhamer said. “I think these tools would really help our business community. I understand the concerns of the privacy things and so I think that's worth learning more about, but I do think this is a growing problem in our community.”

The city council did not take action on the proposal Wednesday night, but they will consider the purchase of license plate readers as part of its upcoming budget, which begins July 1. Some council members inquired about whether third-party vetting could be used to absolve fears of potential misuse.

Cutting, for his part, was open to any suggestions that could help police access automated license plate technology as part of its law enforcement efforts.

“I do take privacy to be an important issue,” Cutting said, “But my biggest intent with using the system that I’m looking at — the Flock system — is because the images are more relevant and searchable... it absolutely will enhance every ability that we have to solve crime.”

Contact Chase Hunter at chase.hunter@sonomanews.com and follow @Chase_HunterB on Twitter.