Alameda police, License-Plate Readers, Vigilant Solutions

City of Alameda, California to debate purchase of LPRs from Vigilant Solutions

On Tuesday May 20th, The City of Alameda is to debate and vote on the purchase of 4 license-plate readers (LPRs), at a cost of $80,000 for use by the Alameda police department.  The Department of Homeland Security has rejected a request for funding for the plate readers, so the costs will come from the city's budget.

The vendor for the plate readers, if the purchase is approved, will be Vigilant Solutions in Livermore (previously known as Vigilant Video, Inc in Pleasanton).  Web of Trust (popular browser tool used to measure the safety of websites) ranks the website for Vigilant Solutions with a poor trustworthiness rating; they are either poorly managing their online reputation, or there is a security/privacy issue with their website.  If the company is to be trusted with secure data pertaining to private information and vehicle identification, they should at least be able to better manage their website.  The CFO (Chief Financial Officer) of Vigilant Solutions is Steve Cintron, who was a consultant and a 'case team leader' for Bain & Company.  The former CEO and executive chairperson of Vigilant is Pierre Leroy, who is a director at Capital One and a member of the risk committee for the credit company that was fined $210 million in 2012 for misleading customers. The founder, president and director of Vigilant is Shawn Smith, who had previously founder Global Knowledge Services (no longer a company), and became president of DolSoft Inc which provides geographical information systems, image and video analysis, data encryption, biometric identification systems, and other security based services.  DolSoft has offices in the US (headquarters in Burlingame, CA), Mumbai (India) and Manila (Philippines).  Out of DolSoft, Smith began Vigilant Video which became Vigilant Solutions.  Vigilant Solutions also manages database for the plate readers: LEARN, the Law Enforcement Archival & Reporting Network and NVLS, National Vehicle Location Serivce.  The websites for the two respective database services also have poor trustworthiness ratings though Web of Trust, which does not leave a strong first impression about their management.

In 2013, the Alameda PD ran a test run of the license-plate readers and LEARN.  Alameda Action News had submitted FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests for data on the results of the trial use of LPRs, and the police refused to answer if the test had identified any stolen cars.  According to Vigilant's licensing agreement, police agencies are not allowed to speak to the press about LEARN / NVLS without 'expressed written consent' from LEARN / NVLS.  This provision restricting transparency is at odds with California's Public Records Act.

Vigilant Solutions has been touting the results of a recent California survey that claims that approx 85% of Californians want police agencies to have LPR technology.  The survey however was commissioned by Vigilant Systems, not by an independent party.  Participants of the online survey were contacted by email, and the survey company Zogby was not straightforward on how the email list was generated.  Even though the survey did receive 800 responses, the initial survey pool was in the thousands.  With the disparity between the initial survey pool and number of responses, the results may not accurately reflect a random sampling of California residents, and may misrepresent sentiments towards LPRs.

Arguing that a private corporation should have the same rights as citizens, Vigilant Solutions has made a First Amendment case over the mass recording of license-plates.  Vigilant made a legal challenge to a Utah law that would have prohibited mass collection of plate data.  They argued that license-plates are in public, and any one - or in this case a corporation - has the right to photograph anything in public.  The ban in Utah on plate recording was lifted, although Utah police agencies are prohibited from accessing Vigilant's databases.

LPRs are mass surveillance tools.  The devices read and store all license-plates they pass by.  It does not matter if a car's driver is obeying traffic laws; it doesn't matter if there isn't any suspicion of dangerous or criminal behavior.  Vigilant stores plate information for a minimum of 6 months, even if a plate is not linked to any investigation.

>http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=50305659
>http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/05/license-plate-reader-firm-releases-dubious-poll-to-show-public-support/
>http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/californians-overwhelmingly-support-use-of-license-plate-readers-and-their-ability-to-solve-crimes-new-survey-finds-257169951.html
>http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_25763680/alameda-police-pushing-license-plate-readers
>https://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/meet-the-company-that-wants-to-scan-your-license-plate-for-the-police-192817557.html