The San Diego Police Department, for the first time since officials installed automated license plate readers at 500 locations across San Diego, at the beginning of the year started releasing the reasons officers tap into the surveillance tool.
San Diego Police Department spokesperson Ashley Nicholes said the step is meant to improve transparency and accountability.
“The reason field is one of the audit improvements we worked with Flock to implement, including required case numbers for searches,” Nicholes told Times of San Diego.
Of the 114,692 times San Diego Police officers searched automatic license plate readers since the start of the year, 19,210 of those searchers were for stolen vehicles, 17,141 were for arrest warrants and 13,221 were for gunfire or weapons offenses, according to SDPD’s data.
The change comes as controversy over Flock’s mass surveillance tools has reached a new level. Opposition in San Diego became an international story last month, and national opposition has suddenly become a bipartisan issue. Concerns include allegations of officers misusing the software, including stalking romantic partners, and the technology’s accuracy, after two San Diego men said officers errantly used ALPRs to tie them to an attempted carjacking, even though they were miles away from the crime when it occurred.
But the city’s data on ALPR searches reveals that the new disclosure for the reason for a search doesn’t always provide transparency.
The top three reasons for searches — stolen cars, arrest warrants or weapons and gun offenses — accounted for 43% of all ALPR searches from January through the end of July, according to the data, obtained and analyzed by Times of San Diego. The rest of the 10 most common reasons for searches were all in some way related to theft, weapons or drugs.
However, the 11th most frequently used category for a search is listed as “other.” From January through August, officers disclosed “other” as their reason 3,962 times.
For a full list of searches, counted by reason, see the table below.
SDPD requires officers to provide a more detailed response when they use that selection —but those details are not publicly released.
Nicholes said that if a query like “immigration” or “reproductive care” is entered, the system automatically shuts down.
SDPD’s dataset contains 152 different reasons for searches.
“SDPD mandates the use of ALPR technology strictly for legitimate law enforcement purposes, such as solving crimes and locating missing persons, while explicitly prohibiting personal use. SDPD’s diligent compliance work under the TRUST Ordinance has even served as a model for improvements made across Flock Safety’s platform, such as the required event or case number feature,” Nicholes said.
