When residents of the Ritzy West LA area experienced an increase in robbery last year, they decided to invest in technology to combat the issue.

Neighborhood Association of Cheviot Hills, a community of million-dollar homes sandwiched between 10 highways and cities of the century, has raised over $200,000 to buy a score for a controversial high-tech camera that scans license plates.

Automated plate readers, as is known, allow authorities to track when they pass through certain intersections. The device can also be mounted on police cars, allowing officers to wipe out the overwhelming overwhelming number plate data while driving. Police say gadgets will help solve the crime by investigating the car where they were stolen, inspecting the location of fugitives and checking people from the neighborhood on a particular day.

But when the community donated cameras to the Los Angeles Police Foundation, one of several nonprofits supporting the Los Angeles Police Department, they sent them with strings attached. Police were permitted to use it only in Sheviot Hills.

For the next few months, charity sparked a debate about who could determine how the technology donated to LAPD is being deployed. and whether the data collected by the plate reader can be used well beyond the intended scope.

Critics have long warned of privacy concerns as cameras track people without consent or warrant and collect data about law-abiding drivers that are stored up to five years.

Since its establishment more than 25 years ago, the Los Angeles Police Foundation has leaked millions of people to LAPD from almost unknown donors. Sometimes money is paid for holiday parties and exercise equipment, but it is also used to acquire cutting-edge police equipment and technology that is not covered by the department’s billions of dollars annual budget.

LAPD Deputy Director John McMahon accused the Police Foundation of donating plate leaders and trampling across its boundaries, according to sources who requested anonymity to avoid retaliation over internal department issues. McMahon has opposed restrictions on where cameras can be used, and has been having problems pushing the foundation to buy plate readers from a specific contractor, an Atlanta-based startup called Flock Safety, according to sources.

After McMahon questioned herd camera donations in December, foundation board member Jeffrey Noy filed an internal complaint against him claiming bias, sources said.

Noi did not respond to requests for comment.

McMahon refused to discuss the pending complaints but told the Times that there was good reason to oppose the donation. He said the herd cameras are not fully compatible with LAPD systems, including the fledgling real-time crime centres in the department that monitor intelligence gatherings from the city.

The department already uses plate readers from major Motorola Solutions and Axon, and McMahon said there are strict rules as to who can see the collected data as long as it is stored. He said Flock’s contract with data policies is slightly different.

McMahon, who heads the LAPD Information Technology Bureau, said the police department should own and “have full control” the data they collect, and that law enforcement can use it “as they think is appropriate” under the law.

“All companies are now trying to monopolize their businesses and make sure that doesn’t happen,” McMahon said. “That’s not the taxpayer’s greatest interest.”

The Police Foundation did not respond to inquiries.

Flock Safety spokesman Holly Beilin said the company recently provided law enforcement users, including LAPD, with the ability to more easily integrate Flock’s software with the system. The department has used herd cameras without any problems, Bailin said police can also access privately owned devices with permission from the owner.

“There are more swarm cameras in the Los Angeles Metro area than most other vendors, and detectives regularly solve crimes,” she said.

She added that under the company’s terms of service, flock clients who provide cameras to police must comply with Senate Bill 34 and other laws governing license plate data sharing.

The crowd conflict made enough noise to elicit more scrutiny from the department’s private supervisory committee. This said they wanted to avoid precedents that go only to areas where crime-fighting technology can afford it.

At a meeting earlier this year, police committee members voted to approve Cheviot Hills’ contributions. The city council has also signed acceptance of herd cameras.

However, supervisory officers are asking for more information on the department-wide strategy for deploying plate leaders in other parts of the city.

LAPD officials now told the committee there are 1,500 police vehicles equipped with plate readers and another 160 devices mounted on poles. Cameras are essentially an enhanced version of the technology used to collect highway tolls, collecting plate numbers in the hundreds of thousands of months.

The plate image automatically runs a detective database to field officers and triggers alerts when recording “hits.” Some vendors claim that new add-ons can detect subtle changes in driver behavior, such as when they “case” their home by turning blocks in cars.

The department currently has information sharing agreements with five other jurisdictions, all of which agree that they will not share data with federal immigration authorities.

Chairman Eroll Southers asked LAPD where readers were stationed and whether the decision was “influenced by donors.”

Most cameras were located at highway exits and ramps near San Fernando Valley, crime hotspots and critical infrastructure, and CMDR responded. Gisselle Espinoza.

“It’s not random, it’s not loose, it’s not whimsical,” she said. “So thoughtful.”

The key to the Cheviot Hills’ contest with cameras is that neighborhood donations to the foundation bypass the city’s usual procurement policies that require vendor bidding processes and review.

In a statement, Cheviot Hills homeowner Assn. “We said the herds were preferred because of their great reputation and strong recommendations from the experts we consulted.

Cindy Kane, who sits on the Neighborhood Association board, said residents were awarded before being selected to police, local city council offices and other Neighborhood Associations. One factor, Kane said, was that Beverly Wood and other nearby communities had already signed a deal with Flock.

“The board discussed being proactive in dealing with crime and privacy issues that far outweigh the concerns of privacy issues,” she said. “We have also determined that working with the Police Foundation is the most effective and efficient way to secure donations from residents that may be allocated for this purpose.”

LAPD data shows that Cheviot Hills robberies doubled from 22 in 2023 to 45 in 2023, but other types of crime in the neighborhood are lower than in other parts of the city.

The public’s perception that crime has gone out of control despite statistics showing that many cities are the safest for decades, is one of the reasons license plate readers have multiplied across the country.

Civil liberty groups, activists and some scholars are calling on more states to tighten regulations on technology, citing concerns about excessive polyclinics in communities of color, among other issues.

False positives are a risk, especially when police are mistakenly identifying suspects based on the vehicle, as records in stolen vehicle databases are sometimes outdated. I’m also worried about the security of the captured data and who will have access to it.

LAPD’s lack of formal data sharing agreement with Flock opens the door for federal authorities to potentially request information from the company about where immigrants are.

Group members and other critics routinely attend committee meetings and denounce growing weapons in the departments of predictive police software, facial recognition and other technologies.

According to Guerra, placing plate leaders at Cheviot Hills appears to be designed to further alienate wealthy communities from black and Latinos.

“Who is being monitored? Who is capable of paying for that surveillance and able to pay for these digital surveillance rings around the community?” Guerra said.

But whether plate readers are located in South Los Angeles or in wealthy areas, officers say concerns about the mass chase of drivers are exaggerated.

LAPD DET. Alan Hamilton, who runs the LAPD detectives office, said the department is already full of hands trying to solve the crime.

“My detective is just too busy catching up with Jones,” Hamilton said.