By admin 
The Yuba County Sheriff’s Department took steps Tuesday to explain its use of automatic license plate readers made by Flock Safety amid community concerns.
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The department shared information with the Yuba County Board of Supervisors in Marysville about how the cameras worked, who had access to them and how they had aided law enforcement.
Automatic license plate readers record information about passing vehicles in a searchable database. Law enforcement agencies use the cameras to find vehicles connected to crimes, but concerns about privacy and data security have led some cities to stop using the technology.
The technology has helped the Sheriff’s Department in cases ranging from kidnapping and homicide to bike theft, Undersheriff Nick Morawcznski said. “It’s just been an invaluable tool,” he said.
The county signed a contract with Flock Safety for license plate readers in 2022. More than 5,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide use Flock Safety, including more than a dozen in the Sacramento region.
The Atlanta-based company and its devices have become the focus of growing concerns over the effectiveness of its license plate readers, the security of its database and whether law enforcement agencies outside California can access the data in violation of state law.
The Grass Valley Police Department announced Monday that it would suspend its use of Flock cameras in response to concerns about effectiveness and privacy. The department, which began using Flock in 2021, has 81 cameras and said it would remove them by the end of the week.
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Yuba County has 33 Flock license plate cameras on public roads in unincorporated areas, Morawcznski said. The county also has five live-feed Flock cameras, two used for election security and three around Grays Beach, he said.
Yuba County’s Flock system retains license plate information for 30 days. The system also keeps a permanent record of every search carried out in the county, including who made the search and what is being investigated.
The audit log is intended to prevent misuse and increase transparency, Morawcznski said. The Sheriff’s Department also makes a 30-day audit log available online.
Flock Safety offers customizable online “transparency portals” that allow law enforcement agencies to share policies, case results and other information with the public. Yuba County’s transparency portal includes a list of every law enforcement agency with access to its license plate data, the 30-day audit log, the number of license plates scanned and the number that appear on law enforcement “hot lists.”
“I hope that this presentation helps to dispel some inaccurate information that has been circulated on the internet and in our community,” Morawcznski said. “It simply is an investigative tool and it is used in conjunction with countless other investigative tools we have at our disposal.”
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