San Francisco Police Audit Shows Feds Accessed License Plate Data Hundreds of Times

But the revelations from the audit are likely to draw renewed scrutiny of the partnership — after some municipalities in the last year have reconsidered or terminated contracts after reports that some customers’ data had been illegally accessed by out-of-state agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, without their knowledge and in violation of California law.

Under a 2015 state law, California public agencies are barred from sharing license plate reader data with federal and out-of-state agencies, and they are subject to strict privacy policies on such information.

Civil liberties organizations have sued San José over its Flock cameras, alleging that the technology creates an unconstitutional “mass surveillance system.” Critics fear the data could be used against immigrants and women seeking reproductive care, as the Trump administration moves to expand deportations and limit abortion access.

SFPD Chief Derrick Lew said the “queries of concern” conducted by NCRIC don’t include any that reference immigration enforcement or reproductive rights. He confirmed that the department is not aware of data being accessed by ICE or the Department of Homeland Security.

Flock advertises its data-sharing offerings, which allow customers to share camera data with other contracted agencies on either a national, state or one-to-one sharing level. In part, the tool is intended to increase coordination between neighboring departments, like being able to track a suspect vehicle that travels from one jurisdiction to another.

While many Bay Area agencies have said that they do not participate in the “National Lookup,” and instead share their data on a one-to-one basis with neighboring departments, some have alleged that the wider sharing setting was reactivated by Flock without their knowledge, allowing out-of-state agencies to access their information.

In this case, SFPD allowed NCRIC to access its data, but said that the partner organization gave access to analysts from a third-party group, the West States Information Network, “during night hours.” Lew said analysts from WSIN, an agency that provides law enforcement coordination and analytical support, conducted the searches on behalf of other agencies, and did not know about California’s state law prohibiting data sharing out of state.

It’s not clear, according to Lew, if any of the outside organizations accessed any SFPD data. Not every query “hits,” or leads to relevant information, he explained.

Among the searches, he said, were queries related to criminal activity and “serious” crime, including homicide, child sexual abuse and drug and gun trafficking.

Lew said more than 500 agencies’ data was queried as part of the breach. Lew said SFPD has disabled both NCRIC and WSIN’s access to the city’s camera network.