Contra Costa County
The Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office runs its own automated license-plate-reader program, separate from the 20 incorporated city/CDP police departments already covered on this site. The Sheriff’s Office is the primary law enforcement agency for the county’s unincorporated communities — Bay Point, Rodeo, Crockett, El Sobrante, Discovery Bay, North Richmond, and others — none of which have their own city police department. The Sheriff’s ALPR program predates Flock: a written policy has been in place since 2012, and the county expanded its camera network in 2019. In 2024, the Sheriff’s Office was one of several California agencies flagged by the state Attorney General for a possible law-plate-data-sharing violation.
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Sheriff's Office adopts a written ALPR policy
The Sheriff’s Office’s General Policy and Procedure 1.07.38 — first issued July 12, 2012 and revised November 18, 2013 — governs ALPR use countywide. The policy predates Flock Safety and doesn’t name a specific vendor: it authorizes mobile, fixed, and hand-held ALPR devices, restricts use to “official business only,” and sets a one-year retention period for collected data. Data is shared with other law enforcement agencies through a regional program called ARIES.
The policy explicitly states that “reasonable suspicion or probable cause is not required to utilize the equipment” — any plate scanned is compared against a daily “Hot List” pulled from databases including NCIC, CLETS, and active BOLOs, with any resulting “Alert” requiring separate confirmation through dispatch before an officer can act on it.
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Board of Supervisors approves 21 more readers near Discovery Bay
CBS San Francisco reported that the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved a request from the sheriff’s office to acquire 21 automated license plate readers, or ALPRs, for installation near Discovery Bay, an unincorporated community in the county’s eastern edge with no city police department of its own. The plan, which passed 4-0 with Supervisor Diane Burgis absent, will come at a total cost of $331,000, including equipment, installation and planned maintenance.
Addressing concerns the Electronic Frontier Foundation had raised about data sharing with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Supervisor Candace Andersen stated that she had double-checked with sheriff’s office personnel, and they had assured her that data generated by the county’s ALPR system is not made available to ICE.
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State Attorney General flags the Sheriff's Office over out-of-state data sharing
A Sacramento Bee investigation, republished by GovTech, found California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office had sent warning letters to a wider batch of agencies after an earlier analysis found license-plate data being shared with out-of-state and federal agencies in apparent violation of state law: Most of the agencies were different from those identified by The N&O. They included the Sacramento Sheriff’s Office, the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office, and police departments in several East Bay cities including Richmond, Pittsburg, and Antioch.
The article noted the original investigation’s methodology: The paper’s review only focused on departments that use readers made by Flock Safety, a major player in the market that has a network of tens of thousands of cameras across the country — the article does not report what, if anything, the Sheriff’s Office’s letter specifically alleged or how the office responded; as of publication, the Attorney General’s office had not taken legal action against any recipient.
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If you live in or near Contra Costa County and have an update, a correction, or context worth adding — a FOIA response, council document, email, public statement, or just something you noticed or heard about that isn't reflected here — send it to contact@nosurveillancepledge.com with dates and a link or scan where you can, and we'll add it with a source.