Police in Pasadena, Long Beach pledged not to send license plate data to ICE. They shared it anyway

An automated license plate reader on an unmarked police car in Washington, D.C., in 2014. Documents show that police in Pasadena and Long Beach shared data from automated license plate readers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, despite promises to withhold such information from the federal agency. The department determined that an employee had inadvertently granted ICE access to automated license plate reader data using Vigilant’s “group approval” feature, according to Long Beach Police Department spokesman Brandon Fahey. Since discovering this error, the Department has implemented several protocols to ensure this error does not occur again in the future, including prohibiting group approvals and adding additional steps in the review and approval process.” Police in both Pasadena and Long Beach agencies continue to share automated license plate reader data with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and California’s Joint Regional Intelligence Center, which partners with the Department of Homeland Security and shares information widely with federal law enforcement agencies. The City of Pasadena and the Pasadena Police Department have no interest in assisting with the identification and deportation of persons not engaged in such activity.” The city of Chula Vista is also grappling with similar privacy concerns after the San Diego Union-Tribune revealed this month that local police allowed federal agencies including ICE to access data collected from license plate readers.