California Cops Are Sending License Plate Data To Anti-Abortion States

Automated license plate readers have been a nightmare for privacy rights activists for over a decade, but last year’s Supreme Court Dobbs decision created an even darker vision: the possibility of pro-choice states assisting anti-abortion states seeking to prosecute people seeking medical care.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation released a report that found 71 law enforcement agencies in 22 California counties shared ALPR data with law enforcement in places like Texas, Idaho, Oklahoma and other states where not only is abortion illegal, but leaving the state to seek abortion care can be a crime. ALPRs can capture thousands of license plates an hour tracking everywhere a driver goes. These cameras will even capture images of your car parked in private driveways. If your car is visible to others, the cops can trace it.

While police and the EFF both say they are not aware of any case where license plate data from California was used in prosecution for anti-choice law violations, you probably shouldn’t wait for someone’s rights to be violated when you can act right now. Indeed, the data sharing seems already to be against California’s own laws protecting privacy, according to the Sacramento Bee (by way of Yahoo! News). Police, including the Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper, had a totally reasonable response to the reporting: posting through it.

“Law enforcement agencies commonly use information from License Plate Readers (LPRs) to investigate serious crimes, such as homicide, child kidnappings, human trafficking, and drug trafficking across state borders,” the twitter account said.

It is unclear who sent the tweets from the official account.

It went on to say that organizations like EFF “have lied that law enforcement sharing this information is an attempt to violate people’s legal rights. These false claims are intentional and part of a broader agenda to promote lawlessness and prevent criminals from being held accountable.”

The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to The Bee’s request for comment by deadline. On Wednesday, after this story published, Cooper took to Twitter to accuse the EFF of “protecting child molesters, fentanyl traffickers, rapists and murderers.”

Sharing ALRP data across state lines is such a vital tool of law enforcement that less than half of California’s 58 counties engage in the practice. One California law enforcement agency even ended its sharing with agencies across state lines after it was named in the EFF report. And no one is saying they want drug dealers and murders to run free, just that the police of California follow the eight-year-old law protecting people’s privacy.

There still aren’t robust protections around data gathering and its use in most of the country. California is ahead of the game, with several laws protecting citizen’s rights, including the 2019 California Consumer Privacy Act.