SDPD Shares Its License Plate Database with Hundreds of Other Agencies

The San Diego Police Department (SDPD) initially told Voice of San Diego it had no control over who can see its massive ALPRS database that tracks where cars go in the region. But it later conceded that it has broad leeway over who can access the data, and that it has not elected to limit that access. Agencies that can see the data range from Border Patrol to tiny local police departments across the country.

The list of agencies (14 pages) with near immediate access to the travel habits of San Diegans includes law enforcement partners you might expect, like the Carlsbad Police Department, but also obscure agencies like the police department in Meigs, Georgia, population 1,038, and a private group that is not itself a police department, the Missouri Police Chiefs Association.

The widespread information-sharing across agencies creates a surveillance network that can sketch out the travel patterns of individuals - where they live and work, which places they frequently visit, and with whom the associate for instance.

In February 2018, I wrote about the use of ALPRS here in the blog, and noted that groups like the ACLU and the EFF have expressed concern that misuse of these systems threaten our privacy.