Drivers in Los Angeles County have a powerful new privacy advocate after the Board of Supervisors pushed to restrict how their license plates are scanned by law enforcement.
The board recently voted to ask the Sheriff’s Department to more stringently regulate its use of the license plate data it collects through high-tech camera systems mounted on patrol cars and above roads. The measure it approved cited reporting from CalMatters that roughly a dozen police and sheriff’s departments throughout Southern California shared such data with federal immigration agencies.
The September motion requests that the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, which operates independently from the supervisors, conduct yearly privacy training for deputies with access to license plate cameras and that the data not be used for non-criminal immigration enforcement…