Palo Alto set to expand its network of license plate cameras

Palo Alto Police Department’s latest crime-fighting tool is silent, passive and largely invisible unless you know where to look.

The city introduced this tool last spring, when it became just the latest municipality to partner with Flock Safety to mount automated license plate readers on lamp posts, street signs and other fixtures in undisclosed locations. The 20 cameras capture license plate information as well as the make, model and color of passing vehicles and send them to a secure server, where the information gets stored for up to 30 days. The council approved the purchase in April 2023 and the department gradually installed them by November of last year.

Now, bolstered by their experiences with the technology, the department is looking to expand its network of cameras. Next week, the City Council will consider and likely approve a plan to add 10 additional cameras, bringing the total to 30.

The technology has faced persistent criticism from civil rights groups, with ACLU recently criticizing Flock for its refusal to allow independent verification of its system and pointing to instances in which the cameras misread license plate information. In New Mexico, for example, three people have sued the city of Espanola, New Mexico, earlier for errors that resulted from camera mistakes, according to a report from the security-focused company IVPM.

There is even an open-source project known as DeFlock that encourages residents to map the location of the cameras in their communities. While the map doesn’t show every camera, it indicates that several are mounted along El Camino Real and Page Mill Road.

Palo Alto police, for their part, are all in on the new equipment. In a new report, the department cites a host of success stories, including one incident in which a suspect was arrested after a series of retail thefts and investigators used Flock data to confirm that their vehicle was in the area at the time of the thefts. In another incident, a car that was connected to a homicide in another city entered Palo Alto and officers were able to locate it and detain the suspect, who was then transferred to the investigating agency.

Police also reported in August 2023 that they had arrested a group of men at Stanford Shopping Center who were allegedly involved in an armed carjacking in Berkeley. After being tipped off about the stolen vehicle and locating it at the shopping center, police pulled over the vehicle and later found a semi-automatic Glock handgun with a high-capacity magazine on the back seat, according to the department.

When Palo Alto’s police command staff made its case for installing cameras, they touted the technology’s ability to tip off the department when a stolen vehicle arrives from another city. Captain James Reifschneider referred to the Flock technology as a “force multiplier.”

“The advantage that ALPR gives to us is that if they arrive in those known stolen vehicles or known stolen plates, the camera can tip us off to their presence as they’re entering the area and allow us to respond an officer there,” Reifschneider told the council before the April 2023 vote to approve the cameras.

The new report from the department similarly characterizes the technology as a valuable tool.

“Real-time alerts generated by the ALPR cameras have resulted in the recovery of dozens of stolen vehicles and stolen license plates, the apprehension of numerous wanted persons, and the seizure of firearms,” the report states. “In addition, ALPR has been used to safely locate missing persons.

“Data captured by the ALPR cameras has also assisted investigators in identifying and arresting numerous felony suspects after crimes have been committed.”

The department does not release the location of cameras to deter criminals from bypassing them by taking alternate routes. It selects locations based on crime statistics, traffic volume and common ingress and egress points, according to the report. And while the Police Department does not install cameras permanently in residential neighborhoods, it could temporarily locate them to address a particular crime trend, according to the city.

Palo Alto is one of many cities that have adopted the new technology. Since introducing Flock cameras, the city has signed agreements with about 60 other law-enforcement agencies to share data from the cameras. These include police departments in neighboring and nearby jurisdictions (Menlo Park, East Palo Alto, Mountain View and Redwood City), sheriff’s offices in Alameda and San Mateo counties and the California Highway Patrol.

The installation of 10 new cameras will raise the cost of the system to $524,208 between now and December 31, 2029. The cost will be entirely covered by the state’s Organized Retail Theft grant program, according to the Police Department report.

Under the city’s policy, the license plate data that is stored by Flock must be purged after 30 days unless “it has become, or it is reasonable to believe it will become, evidence in a specific criminal investigation or is subject to a discovery request or other lawful action to produce records.” The policy also prohibits the department from selling the data or for using it for any purpose other than “legitimate law enforcement or public safety purposes.”

This story originally appeared in Palo Alto Weekly. Gennady Sheyner covers local and regional politics, housing, transportation and other topics for the Palo Alto Weekly, Palo Alto Online and their sister publications.