On April 28, 2016, the BART Board of Directors stopped, at least temporarily, a BART Police plan to install Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) at MacArthur BART – a pilot program to surveil all those entering and exiting the parking facilities. Alert members of the Oakland Privacy Working Group noticed the item buried on the BART Board’s agenda, and three OPWG members testified against the ALPR proposal going forward.

Prior to that notice very few people had any idea that BART police were deploying, or were about to deploy, Automated License Plate Readers. It seems likely, given the meeting comments, that the BART board itself was not aware this was happening before the report was put on the agenda. That it was brought up at all before the Board is a consequence of a new California law, S.B. 34, which requires public notice and input, and that a privacy and use policy be developed, before deployment of ALPRs.

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