Three local police departments that have pledged not to cooperate with U.S. immigration agents are using a controversial license plate reader technology that shares details with hundreds of other law enforcement agencies in California, some of which have been found to be searching the network on behalf of the federal government.
Residents might be surprised to know their cars are being logged every time they drive through certain intersections in the city limits of Capitola, Santa Cruz and Watsonville.
The Santa Cruz Police Department has eight cameras which have logged more than 458,000 vehicle license plates in the past 30 days. Capitola has 10 cameras which have scanned more than 275,000 plates in the past month. Watsonville has 20 cameras which have detected over 255,000 cars in the past 30 days…