Report 2019-118 Recommendation 7 Responses

Report 2019-118: Automated License Plate Readers: To Better Protect Individuals' Privacy, Law Enforcement Must Increase Its Safeguards for the Data It Collects (Release Date: February 2020)

Recommendation #7 To: Fresno Police Department

To minimize the privacy risk of retaining ALPR images for a long period of time, by August 2020 Fresno should review the age of the ALPR images its personnel are searching for and ensure that its retention period for ALPR images is based on agency needs. Fresno should reflect in its ALPR policy the updated retention period and state in its policy that it will reevaluate its retention period at least every two years.

6-Month Agency Response

Based on the results of the audit, the Fresno Police Department has reviewed our policy. Initially we believed a six-month retention period would be appropriate. In our research we have discovered California Government Code section 34090.6 requires retention of this type of video data for one year. We have updated our policy to reflect this. We will continue our practice of retaining images for one year as required by law. This has been updated in Policy 453 ALPR.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Fully Implemented

60-Day Agency Response

The Fresno Police Department has every intention on complying with the audit recommendations; however, this crisis has delayed us. Prior to COVID-19, we had already restructured our sharing MOU and were in the process of working on some of the other items due in April; however, this pandemic has caused us to shift our resources.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

We acknowledge the difficulty of the current situation with COVID-19. We look forward to the department's future status reports.

All Recommendations in 2019-118

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.