Tiburon license-plate camera searches continue despite new safeguards

An audit by The Ark has revealed that outside police agencies continued to conduct thousands of license-plate searches using Tiburon’s camera systems, despite new local safeguards intended to limit such access.

Between January and July, 34 external agencies performed 8,542 searches of the town’s cameras for investigations involving federal entities. This occurred after Tiburon updated its policy in December to require monthly audits and restrict searches to valid reasons. The audit found that 26 agencies maintained access to the cameras, with eight agencies performing searches flagged as federally entangled as recently as July.

Specific activity included the Kings County Sheriff’s Office conducting 14 searches on a single day in July, citing Homeland Security Investigations agents. Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies also logged searches to assist the FBI with cybercrime and taskforce investigations. Additionally, the audit noted that a federally funded intelligence center was permitted to search the cameras for federal agents and out-of-state police for 105 days after warnings that such sharing violated California Senate Bill 34, which prohibits sharing license-plate data with federal or out-of-state entities.