Citizen Portal
Sign In

Committee approves LAPD donation of license-plate readers and three grants amid public privacy concerns

2231923 ยท January 31, 2025

Loading...

AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

The Public Safety Committee approved a non-monetary donation of ALPR equipment, a COPS hiring grant and a sustainment grant; public commenters warned about surveillance, data sharing with federal agencies and civil-rights impacts.

The Public Safety Committee voted to accept a non-monetary donation of automated license plate recognition (ALPR) equipment valued at $202,000 from the Los Angeles Police Foundation and to approve two related grant awards for LAPD hiring and STC sustainment, despite public comment expressing privacy and civil-rights concerns about surveillance and data sharing.

The committee approved three items taken together: item 3 (accept ALPR equipment donation), item 13 (accept COPS grant of $9,544,040 to support 20 newly hired officers for a three-year term) and item 14 (accept STC sustainment grant of $3,166,000 with a technical account amendment). Council Member McOsker called the items for separate votes; the committee then took the items as amended. The items passed on a recorded vote: Council Member John Lee and Council Member Price voted aye; Council Member McOsker voted yes; Council Member Sotomayor Martinez voted no on the items; Council Member Tracy Park voted yes.

Public commenters raised concerns about ALPR systems and their data-sharing implications. A speaker registered as representing Restore (public sign-up name) argued ALPR deployment reflects racist narratives and targets communities of color, and said the cameras "perpetuate white supremacy under the guise of public safety." Hamid Khan of the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition warned ALPR data are shared with fusion centers and federal agencies and argued that access can reach ICE and DHS. Another commenter described an instance in which ALPR flags allegedly contributed to a violent, heavily policed traffic stop; the speaker used the example to caution against expanded surveillance.

Council discussion included a technical amendment for item 14 (an account correction) read into the record; the amendment was accepted before the vote. The committee approved the three items as amended with the recorded vote noted above.

Decisions recorded: accept the LAPD donation of ALPR equipment valued at $202,000; accept COPS grant award of $9,544,040 to fund 20 hires over three years; accept STC sustainment grant award of $3,166,000 (technical account amendment applied). The committee did not adopt any new ALPR policy or data-sharing restriction in this vote; commenters urged policy changes for data access and safeguards, which the committee did not instruct staff to implement at this meeting.