Gavin Newsom has just imposed a bill to regulate registration plates

From Harry Johnson and Mohammed al elevCalmness

This story was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would tighten the rules on how the California police use automated registration plates, stating that the regulations would impede criminal investigations.

The legislature approved the proposal last month amid reports that police abused data including A history of tranquility in June Showing that employees more than 100 times violate the state law against the sharing of data with federal authorities and others outside the state.

The veto comes as the new Calmatters reporting shows Riverside County Sheriff’s Sheriff have broken Domestic policy Do not document why they tracked certain registration plates.

In his Veto This week, Newsom cites examples of how the proposed restrictions that the police would require better document their search and delete some of their data within two months can work for the police.

“For example,” he writes, “may not be obvious, especially with regard to cold cases that registration plates are required to resolve a crime until the 60-day detention period expires.”

But evidence is increasing that technology is being abused. Records recently reviewed by CalMatters show that Riverside County Sheriff has abused “hot lists” that allow them to automatically monitor certain cars.

The measure imposed on the veto by the governor, Senate Bill 274It would limit the types of monitoring of registration plates that agencies can use for those related to missing persons or lists with registration plates maintained by the National Information Center for Crime or the California Department of Justice. It would also require security and confidential training of employees who use technology and force them to document which case or work group work is related to demand.

The bill would also require agencies to delete some data collected within 60 days and instructs the State Department of Justice to carry out accidental audits on how to use the technology of registration plates.

The proposal provoked opposition from nearly 30 agencies and law enforcement associations, including the Sheriff’s Riverside County office and the California Association of Police Chiefs. The Riverside County Sheriff’s Service opposed the bill, as the requirement to delete data after two months may mean the difference between the resolution of the murder and the launch of the killer, “according to a letter written by Sheriff Chad Bianco, and Republican candidateS

Automated registration plates readers can help criminal investigations or help find stolen cars or missing people, but they can also counterfeit arrestsOr allow abuse for personal reasons.

A database of lists of registration plates from July to August, reviewed by Calmatters, shows that the Sheriff Department of Riverside County, which has a network of more than 500 cameras, maintains hundreds of custom lists for registration plates from July to August, adding more than 700 plates to the counts at that time. Near 100 of the signs tracked in lists, they were added with the help of unclear justifications, making it difficult to check that MPs obey the laws and policies surrounding the use of technology. According to the department’s policy, tracking lists should include, among other things, “specific details about incidents”.

It is unclear whether the deputies correctly shared all hot lists with supervisory authorities. Some have names that contain words such as “personal” or “private”. A total of 32 of them have access permits that restrict the plate monitoring signals to one user. The Riverside County Sheriff automates the Riverside registration plates reader that “No user should create a personalized hot list available for himself.”

A spokesman for the Riverside County Sheriff’s office wrote in an email that it is common practice for MPs to create personal hot lists tracking registration plates and that all MPs are able to create such lists. Asked for unclear excuses attached to some lists, they wrote: “These records are related to criminal investigations.” The Riverside County Sheriff did not answer questions about whether some deputy hot lists violate the policy.

The database shows that MPs have several practices that would be outlawed if the Newsom signed the bill to register the registration plates.

In Riverside’s hot list, over 90% of the records in the registration plates added to the tracking in July, and August left the field of the case, which would be prohibited under the bill.

Last month, Bryana Ortega brought a case Against the Sheriff’s Riverside County Service, Sheriff Chad Bianco and Deputy Eric Piscate. Ortega claims that after she met Piscatella at a Coachella festival in September 2023, he lurks her to pursue a romantic connection with her by illegally receiving her telephone number and turning the database of the Sheriff and repeatedly manages her registration sign through the office of the office of the office Piscatella has pleaded guilty to seven charges of abuse of the Sheriffe Database in July.

It is unclear whether automated registration numbers have played a role in the violation of Piscatella deputy.

Asked if Piscatella was used ALPR to trace Ortega’s location before the offense appeared, the department spokesman told Calmatters that “this information is part of a continuing investigation.”

Police in other states abuse the readers of registration plates. Earlier this year in Florida, a police officer was accused by police investigators of using automated readers of registration plates for Debate your girlfriend for seven monthsS Last year, the Kansas police chief resigned after a State Commission said he used the technology to Track an ex -girlfriendS Another Kansas police officer has been arrested for using registration plates readers to lurked his alienated wifeS

Police and Sheriff departments have a history of violating other laws by using readers of registration plates. A Investigation of CalMatters In June, it found that approximately a dozen law enforcement agencies in southern California share data with federal immigration agencies such as immigration and customs execution and border patrol, violation of A California law This came into force 10 years ago. The same diary had tens of thousands of searches without clear justification.

Recorded requests from groups including the US Union for Civil Freedoms and the Electronic Border Foundation In 2023 found that 71 law enforcement agencies violate the state law against sharing data for a reader of registration plates with agencies outside the state and the federal government. As a result of these findings, General Prosecutor Rob Bont issued a council to the police with specific guidance about how to comply with the law.

Since 2024 the Bont Service has sent letters to 18 law enforcement agencies in California for possible violations of state legislationfrom Sheriff’s offices at Contra Costa and County Sacramento in Northern California to the Riverside County Sheriff’s office Police Department of El Kajong in San Diego County. California General Prosecutor Rob Bont has brought a case against the city of El Kajon today, claiming that the El Kajon police station has repeatedly shared data on readers of registration plates with law enforcement authorities in 26 states.

“This technology is unmanageable given the number of agencies, interests and the inability to true compliance,” said UC San Diego Lilly Irani Associate Professor in response to the veto.

Irani is part of the Management Committee for Trust the SD CoalitionA group of more than 30 organizations that are pressing the city of San Diego to discontinue the use of automated readers of registration plates.

The popularity of readers of registration plates among law enforcement agencies is not up to date with the necessary civil freedom and protection of confidentiality, said Pedro RIOS, director of the Committee for Service of American Friends US-MEXICO BORDER PROGRAMA group that opposes how observation technology affects migrant communities in places like El Kajon. He believes that the governor has missed the opportunity to have random audits of police departments to ensure compliance with the existing law and to prevent abuse of power.

“If there is an abuse, how can we be sure that this type of abuse or recent practices are not repeated if the agencies that use them are not held accountable?” he said.

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.