Sacramento – On Wednesday, June 26, at 10 am, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will urge the Joint Legislative Audit Committee to approve an audit on the use of automated license plate readers (ALPR) by state law enforcement.

ALPRs are camera systems that scan the license plates of vehicles in order to track people in real time and create search databases of driver’s historical travel patterns. As a mass surveillance technology, ALPR captures information on every driver, regardless of whether their vehicle is under suspicion. Several years ago, California lawmakers passed legislation to regulate ALPR use, including requiring publicly available usage policies and guidelines for how the information is accessed. State Sen. Scott Wiener, who previously supported EFF legislation to protect drivers’ from ALPR surveillance, filed the request for the audit.

At the hearing Wednesday, EFF Senior Investigative Researcher Dave Maass will explain that many California law enforcement agencies are not complying with this law. Researchers have found that ALPR data is routinely shared with hundreds of other entities without safeguards or proper legal process. A probe by the California State Auditor will help the public and policymakers learn more about how state agencies are protecting their data.

WHAT:
Joint Legislative Audit Committee Hearing to Consider New Audit Requests

WHO:
EFF Senior Investigative Researcher Dave Maass

WHEN:
Wednesday, June 26
10 am

WHERE:
State Capitol, Room 126
10th and L Streets
Sacramento, CA 95814

For more on the hearing:
https://legaudit.assembly.ca.gov/hearings

For more on ALPR:
https://www.eff.org/pages/automated-license-plate-readers-alpr