Knock LA

On Tuesday October 27, Los Angeles City Council will vote to accept or reject a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Los Angeles Police Department and automatic license plate reader (ALPR) manufacturer Axon. The vote was originally scheduled for this past Tuesday but was postponed at the last minute.  October 27 is the final day City Council can act on the matter. 

The proposed MOU would cover a three-month pilot program of Axon’s Lightpost product, an ALPR with livestream capabilities that attaches to streetlights. Axon’s website boasts that the product “can be deployed in less than an hour…to expand coverage without new poles, trenching, or delays.” Under the pilot program, any streetlight in Los Angeles could become a tool for police surveillance.

Nationwide concern over ALPRs exploded into view over the past few years. Flock Safety drew national scrutiny as numerous reports emerged about inappropriate uses of their products, including Flock data utilized by police to stalk former romantic partners. In addition, LAPD fell into a pattern of mistakenly pulling over innocent Angelenos after Flock data incorrectly flagged 161 vehicles as stolen. Over the summer, LAPD allowed its contract with Flock Safety to expire following months of organizing, a lawsuit filed by Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, and revelations that California police departments illegally shared Flock data with ICE and the Department of Homeland Security.

At the end of July, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for LAPD held a session for public input regarding the Department’s use of ALPRs. The overwhelming majority of meeting participants advocated for an end to ALPR usage, with a smattering of Pacific Palisades residents and Councilmember Traci Park insisting Flock cameras and other ALPRs were essential to maintaining the safety of their predominantly white and wealthy neighborhood. 

“Strange people can drive in with their cars frequently, twenty-four hours a day,” said Palisades resident Michael during the input session. “We are making a very concentrated effort to have an increase in the number of LPRs at key intersections.” 

As Flock Safety became a lightning rod for public attention, LAPD quietly pursued a new contract with Axon, whose brand does not currently possess the same negative connotations. LAPD currently holds a $6.87 million contract with Axon for their Digital In-Car Video Systems, which activates and records when officers turn on their vehicle’s lights. Axon also produces the body-worn cameras utilized by LAPD officers. 

A proposed MOU between LAPD and a private company is not an item that historically requires City Council approval. The Board of Police Commissioners is the oversight body typically approving or denying such contracts. However on October 2, Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez put forth a motion to assert jurisdiction over the Board of Police Commissioner’s proposal to approve the new MOU. In doing so, City Council became the deciding body on the contract. Soto-Martinez stated in his motion that the purpose of this action was to “provide the public with an additional opportunity to learn about these additional guardrails, and to offer Councilmembers an opportunity to engage the Department about this extreme sensitive and powerful technology that is already affecting so many communities across the City.”  

One of the primary concerns of community organizations and LA residents is how data collected by Axon’s Lightpost Program will be used and shared. According to the proposed MOU, LAPD would be the “sole and exclusive owner of all data, images, video, footage, plate reads, detections, telemetry, logs, metadata, and other information collected,” by the Lightpost ALPRs during the trial period. The agreement states that neither Axon nor its subcontractors can “access, use, share, sell, license, disclose, de-identify, aggregate, or commercially exploit LAPD data.” It also prohibits the sharing of data with Ubicquia, the company producing the mechanism that physically attaches the Lightpost ALPR. According to their website, Ubicquia’s mission is to turn “streetlights, transformers, and substations into AI-powered intelligent infrastructure.” The proposed MOU states that Ubicquia’s infrastructure would only be used for physical installation, maintenance, and de-installation and would not incorporate any AI capabilities into the ALPR. 

While restrictions around who owns and accesses the ALPR data are written into the new MOU, anti-surveillance state advocates argue that it makes no difference if the contract prohibits Axon and LAPD from sharing or selling the data. No matter the contract stipulations, LAPD sends ALPR and other data to fusion centers, physical buildings around the country that are run by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and used to “fuse” public and private data into profiles of individuals. The closest fusion center to Los Angeles is the Joint Regional Intelligence Center (JRIC), located in Norwalk. Community organizers don’t need to speculate about LAPD’s participation in JRIC, as LAPD officers currently spend overtime hours there. In a previous conversation with Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, organizers told Knock LA that no matter what is in the contracts between LAPD and ALPR vendors, the data ends up in the hands of the federal government anyway. 

“No matter how many guardrails [ALPR companies] put up, we understand that this information-sharing will always be baked in because data will always be shared between LAPD and DHS through fusion centers,” they said. 

If you feel passionately about dismantling the surveillance architecture of the police state, you still have time to take action. You can sign on to a letter from DSA-LA demanding that the City Council reject the contract, submit written public comment, or show up in person to the upcoming vote at Los Angeles City Hall, Room 340.

Rosalind Jones (she/they) is a queer, Los Angeles-based writer and community organizer. She is a contributor for the online publication Knock LA, a founding member of the social justice organization Community Solidarity Project, and authors a Substack titled ‘Another World is Inevitable’. Rosalind holds a BA in Diplomacy and World Affairs from Occidental College and a certification in Creative Writing from the UCLA Extension.