Putting the detector before the data

On April 21, just one day before the Oceanside City Council was scheduled to vote on a purchase order for four license-plate readers, the city's police department was unable to answer questions about the secure storage of license-plate information they intended to gather.

The request made it past the Police and Fire Commission on April 16 without changes because the police failed to properly inform the commission that they were hiring a private contractor to oversee the database; so, the police pulled their request for the four license-plate readers from the city council’s consent calendar.

The 11th-hour reversal stemmed from a lack of oversight outside of the police department, including by the citizen-run Police and Fire Commission and the city council.

“[The commission] is a layer of information, where we bounce plans off them,” said Capt. Ray Bechler of the Oceanside Police Department.

Composed of residents, Oceanside’s Police and Fire Commission advises the city council on public safety issues and suggests changes to city staff. But neither the commission’s own agenda, nor minutes — made available 12 days after its April 16 meeting — included mention of license-plate readers, calling into question the commission's readiness to make suggestions.

“They were aware of the purchase, paid through [a] grant. The issue of the storage was brought up after the meeting,” Bechler said.

Among the issues were the vendor’s access to the data, keeping the data safe, and the police being able to share it appropriately with other agencies.

Bechler said city attorney John Mullen only raised the question of how the information would be stored with a private vendor, just before the city council was scheduled to vote on it on April 22.

“The city attorney kind of asked, ‘Okay, you get the [license-plate readers] — now what?’” said Bechler.

The commission voted unanimously to accept the $133,276 grant through Operation Stonegarden and purchase four license-plate readers. Their recommendation was included in a police department report to the city council. The report served as the sole basis for consent calendar votes, which are typically routine items lumped together in one vote.

Lt. Karen Laser said that the license-plate readers will be on fixed poles or mobile units that can be attached to police cars; they will photograph plate numbers and record the time and place where the plate's image was captured. Officers will have the ability to check license plates against the license-plate reader system hosted by Vigilant Solutions, Inc.

The Oceanside Police Department currently has license-plate readers, but the information stays inside the agency, according to Bechler. As part of a federal program — the Department of Homeland Security's Operation Stonegarden — the new data will need to be shared with participating agencies around the country, and that requires capability beyond Oceanside PD’s current system.

While accepting the Stonegarden grant is on the agenda for the May 6 meeting, the license-plate readers have been put off until an undetermined date.

“These are just one small part of a bigger program, and it’s not going to hold [Operation Stonegarden] up,” said Mullen.