stored

But privacy advocates have raised alarms about the technology, alleging that the cameras track people without their consent and that the data stored on them can be vulnerable to bad actors.

The camera alerts police if it captures a reported stolen vehicle, but there’s also a voluminous amount of data stored by police agencies of all the other cars on the road.

A 2020 California audit noted that the Los Angeles Police Department, Fresno Police Department, Marin County Sheriff’s Office and the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department improperly stored images of vehicles that were not part of a police investigation.

California law dictates how long how data are stored and how they are shared by law enforcement agencies.

Unless it’s used in a criminal investigation, information captured by a license plate reader is not stored with any personally identifiable information, said Sgt.