Records: El Cajon license plate data used in nationwide immigration searches

Surveillance data collected by the El Cajon Police Department (ECPD) was used in immigration-related searches more than 550 times this year, according to a KPBS analysis of records from the city’s automated license plate reader (ALPR) system.

The analysis shows that out-of-state police agencies routinely tap into data collected by El Cajon’s ALPR system for immigration-related searches – sometimes on behalf of federal agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

It’s something that shouldn’t happen under California’s sanctuary laws, which generally prohibit any local resources from being used to enforce federal immigration laws.

“This is pretty significant. In California, it violates multiple laws to use the system not only for immigration but to allow an external and out-of-state entity to access your data,” said Dave Maass, director of investigations for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a Bay Area-based privacy rights organization.

Last week, California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued El Cajon over its practice of sharing ALPR data with out-of-state agencies. Arguing it violates SB 34, one of California's key laws protecting immigrants.

“The whole point of the restrictions on sharing is that once it’s shared with any entity outside of the state of California, you lose control,” said Bonta, a Democrat, during a press conference announcing the lawsuit.

At the news conference, Bonta said his office could not say whether El Cajon’s data was used explicitly for immigration enforcement.

“I don’t believe that we know that,” he said. “But it is naïve to not flag that risk.”

But the KPBS analysis shows that’s exactly what happened. Between January and July, police departments from Texas, Virginia, Kentucky, and other states tapped El Cajon’s system 574 times. Search terms included: “immigration,” “immigration violation,” “immigration enforcement” and “ICE assist.”

Mariene Branham, a member of the El Cajon-based immigrant rights group Latinos En Acción, said she was “shocked” by how much of the data was used for immigration enforcement.

“It’s very important that we’re uncovering this data,” Branham said. “But it just brings up a whole slew of other questions.”

El Cajon’s ALPR system captures photos of hundreds of thousands of vehicles each month — automatically tracking the exact time, location and license plate number. It stores all of that data in a searchable database.

Police departments that use these systems call them a “force multiplier” for investigations into car thefts and other crimes.

But privacy advocates warn that these mass surveillance systems collect enough data to give investigators a clear picture of people’s daily lives – where they live, work, shop, eat, and worship.

Police departments control who has access to their data, and El Cajon is the only department in San Diego County that grants access to police agencies outside of California, according to Bonta.

Lack of oversight

KPBS shared the analysis with El Cajon police Chief Jeremiah Larson and invited him to review the findings. He declined.

In a previous interview, Larson said the department monitors the ALPR system and has listed “immigration enforcement” as a prohibited use since it was first set up.

“We do regular audits and we have a Lieutenant that oversees the program and makes sure that when people are using it they are using it for the right purposes and legitimate reasons,” Larson said.

Later, in a follow-up email, Larson suggested the audits only include internal searches performed by El Cajon police officers, not the external searches done by outside agencies.

“There are hundreds of thousands of searches every month within this system,” he wrote. “The El Cajon Police audits our internal searches to ensure we are complying with policy and law.”

Maass, from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said delegating external audits to a private company creates a serious vulnerability in El Cajon’s system.

“It should anger everyone to hear them say it out loud,” Maass said.

He added that Larson’s decision not to have someone in-house conduct external audits suggests that the police department should not be trusted with this technology.

“If you have decided that you shouldn’t have to monitor that stuff, then you shouldn’t have access to this system at all,” Maass said. “You have just proven that you don’t have the cyber security chops, at the very basic fundamental level, to be trusted with data for your community.”

El Cajon responds

Larson did not say whether the department plans to change its data-sharing policy. But El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells supports the program.

In a news release after Bonta announced his lawsuit, Wells defended the sharing by calling it a “cornerstone of effective policing.”

Wells went on to call the lawsuit “nothing more than a political stunt and an attempt to bully a conservative city.”

Wells regularly appears on Fox News, where he criticizes California’s sanctuary policies. He also introduced a controversial resolution declaring the city’s intent to help the federal government enforce immigration laws.

The resolution is mostly performative. Officers in El Cajon still have to follow state laws that limit their ability to enforce those laws. Officers are prohibited from asking people about their immigration status or detaining people on behalf of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.