This article is a co-publishing effort between CALÓ News and Inadvertent.
The Santa Ana Police Department (SAPD) is tracking all drivers across the city using automated license plate readers (ALPR) and putting their information into a privately-owned national database. The ALPR systems, approximately 57 cameras purchased from private companies Flock Safety and Motorola, indiscriminately track law-abiding residents almost-exclusively. According to a statistic provided by SAPD, a mere .02% of total scans within one week resulted in a connection to a criminal investigation. SAPD’s mass surveillance of the Santa Ana community comes as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) looks to create a 24/7 social media surveillance team in Santa Ana at the Pacific Enforcement Response Center (PERC), according to ICE’s draft plans and reporting by WIRED.
In May, a Santa Ana city council majority voted in favor of mass tracking of Santa Ana residents by entering into contracts with Flock and Motorola. The move came despite a growing number of cities across the country abandoning their agreements with Flock in support of civil rights as well as the neighboring Orange County Sheriff’s Department and Los Angeles Police Department illegally sharing ALPR data with ICE. The council majority – Santa Ana Police Officers Association-aligned members Thai Viet Phan, Valerie Amezcua, Phil Bacerra and David Penaloza – lauded the mass surveillance technology as a way to assist SAPD in criminal investigations. According to a study by the Municipal Technical Advisory Service at the University of Tennessee, there is little empirical evidence that suggests surveillance cameras keep communities safe…