In an effort to find out what police do with all of the data they collect using automatic license plate readers (ALPRs), local activist Mike Glenn filed an open records request. The police refused to release the information.

Data collected by automated license plate readers is exempt from disclosure under the Public Records Act.  The data collected by ALPRs is exempt from disclosure because it constitutes law enforcement records of investigation.

In other words, if you have ever parked in PCH or Balboa Peninsula, your license plate was likely scanned and that makes you part of a criminal investigation.

Residents of Newport Beach like to think of themselves as different. They are a speck of red in the blue-state of California, a bastion of conservatism in a land of progressives. But when it comes to embracing the surveillance state, Newport Beach is exactly like the rest of California.

The San Francisco Bay area city of Danville recently became the latest California municipality to obtain ALPRs.  As it turns out, Newport Beach has approved the use of this license plate tracking technology too. The stated purpose of ALPR scanning is parking control, but it remains unclear how police store the data and if they utilize it for other purposes.