San Marcos police recommend 30-day retention for license-plate reader data; council asks for MOU and stricter outside-agency controls

San Marcos Police Department leaders on March 18 presented proposed revisions to the city's automatic license plate reader (ALPR) policy and outlined steps to formalize how the department will retain data and share it with outside law enforcement agencies.

Chief Standridge (identified in the presentation as the police chief) told the City Council that the department recommends retaining ALPR reads for 30 days. "I strongly recommend that we retain 30 days," he said, citing investigative cases and what staff characterized as frequent delays between offenses and reporting. Standridge described several investigations in 2024 in which delayed reporting or case development made older ALPR records relevant to identifying vehicles linked to offenses.

The chief described two investigative examples to explain the policy rationale: a series of 2024 incidents involving voyeurism and burglary where ALPR queries tied a vehicle to multiple scenes days after the events, and a previously adjudicated homicide (the presentation referenced the case of Mandy Reynolds) where ALPR data contributed to identifying a suspect who had traveled through other jurisdictions. Standridge also cited an internal analysis showing substantial delayed-reporting intervals for certain crimes (the presentation cited examples such as embezzlement averaging 317 days delayed reporting and some sexual-assault-related offenses with reporting delays the presentation listed in the hundreds of days), and he said that norm argues for retention at or near 30 days.

Standridge described the Flock Group Inc. ALPR system and emphasized several limitations and protections in the proposed policy: the system…