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The Redwood City Council approved a response letter on Oct. 5 to the San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury’s report on the city’s automated license plate reader program, despite calls from public speakers to wait for feedback from two ALPR community forums in October.
Council members Jeff Gee and Diane Howard, and Vice Mayor Kaia Eakin, cited the Nov. 2 response deadline to support approval of the letter, while Mayor Elmer Martínez Saballos called it a “shot clock.”
According to the letter, the city agreed with all seven findings related to its ALPR practices and outlined policy changes and other steps it had taken or would take.
“The response doesn’t capture all the work happening right now to update the policies and then gather input from the community,” Saballos said. “But there will be more time for us to be able to have a proper conversation.”
Council member Chris Sturken voted against the motion proposing instead that the city wait to modify and approve the letter to the grand jury at the Oct. 26 council meeting. Council member Marcella Padilla was absent for the vote.
“The recommendation is just not yet satisfactory,” Sturken said. “Now that we are scheduling an outreach session, we could hear from folks who haven’t engaged thus far.”
The city’s response
The grand jury report, released Aug. 3, reviewed all 17 county law enforcement agencies operating ALPR systems. It identified gaps in policies, audits, and oversight of data sharing, as the Pulse previously reported.
The letter also said the Redwood City Police Department revised its ALPR policy as of Sept. 18 to address audit practices, data retention and data sharing. The revised policy also defined its criteria for approving, denying, reviewing and terminating in-network data-sharing relationships.
The jury also found that Redwood City police shared ALPR data with private university security entities without establishing that the sharing was legally permitted. In response, the city terminated the data-sharing relationship with Stanford University Department of Public Safety on Aug. 10, Police Chief Kristina Bell said.
Bell said at the Oct. 5 meeting that the department began its internal ALPR audit in May. The department previously reported that four entities improperly searched city license plate reader data at least 99 times, as the Pulse reported in August.
The jury found that the Redwood City Police Department’s ALPR audit reports did not adequately demonstrate compliance with California law and the department’s own policy. The city’s response said the department began publishing its annual ALPR Reports online on Sept. 30.
The jury also recommended that the city incorporate contractual language requiring vendor compliance with applicable California law and prohibiting vendors from disclosing ALPR data to unauthorized third parties. The city said it would implement this recommendation if it proceeds with a new agreement.
The letter said the city’s current agreement with Flock Safety will expire on Oct. 31, 2026.
However, in August, Bell told the Police Advisory Committee that the contract with Flock would expire in November, and city communications contractor Jeanne Sullivan Billeci confirmed this to the Pulse. When the council approved ALPR technology at its Sept. 11, 2023 meeting, the staff report said the vendor contract would run until September 2026.
Debate over timing and audits
Roughly half a dozen public commenters raised concerns about the city’s use of automated license plate reader technology, especially its implications for immigrant safety, privacy and civil liberties. They asked the city to wait to approve the letter until after the October community forums.
Lawrence Huang, who was one of 14 members of the public who raised concerns about ALPRs at the Sept. 28 council meeting, called the department’s audit policy “insufficient,” citing its 2025 annual report, which showed audits were conducted for only 100 random searches every month. Huang said that amounted to less than 7% of searches.
“That’s barely a spot check,” Huang said. “Proper audits would be quite onerous for our city’s police department. We can make our law enforcement officers’ lives a lot easier by discontinuing the use of ALPRs and removing the need for audits altogether.”
Several council members who approved the letter said the letter response was to follow a state requirement, but that more community discussion could steer the details of the city’s ALPR program, especially before a new vendor contract is approved.
Assistant City Manager Michelle Poche Flaherty said the California attorney general can impose penalties on the city if it violates state law by responding to the grand jury too late or inadequately. She did not specify what those penalties would be.
“If we have an outreach session scheduled for this Wednesday,” Sturken asked, “couldn’t we theoretically just continue this item to our Oct. 26 meeting and give ourselves the chance to reflect on feedback from the community?”
Saballos said the benefit of passing the letter at the Oct. 5 meeting was to ensure Bell would be available to respond to council questions.
Heisinger said these community forums were intended for “broader feedback” on ALPRs in general, and that the Oct. 26 meeting already had a “very ambitious agenda” with “very valuable real estate,” favoring approval of the response at the Oct. 5 meeting.
Flaherty added that “strategically,” she didn’t see how more community input would change the letter, given the “limitations of the language” staff must use to respond to the grand jury report.
Howard asked if an independent audit could be established, to which Bell responded, “Absolutely — if it’s affordable. Those are expensive.”
The “main issue” with an outside audit, Bell said, was the security risk of allowing an entity that is not law enforcement access to the ALPR database, which may include personally identifying information.
The city hosted one community outreach meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 7, and will host one on Thursday, Oct. 29, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Fair Oaks Community Center, 2600 Middlefield Road. Register to attend here.
