Vallejo surveillance board approves new privacy policy for mobile security towers

VALLEJO – Vallejo’s Surveillance Advisory Board approved a use policy on Thursday to manage surveillance footage recorded by new mobile security camera towers to be placed around the city. 

The board voted unanimously to approve the policy, one month after requesting minor changes to the first draft. The Vallejo City Council approved purchasing the towers last July for $500,000, and the board has since then weighed the growing public concern about sharing the data they collect with the companies which manage the cameras and the potential that could be shared with federal immigration enforcement officials.

The cameras are manufactured and operated by LiveView Technologies, a Utah-based video surveillance company. The portable, elevated security systems are equipped with cameras and sensors and often used at big box stores to catch car break-ins and theft. The company said in its report to the board that its technology has led to a “70% decrease in parking lot incidents, 62% fewer violent crimes and 69% reduction in grab-and-go theft.” 

The cameras are being placed around Vallejo, although the city has not provided a list or map of locations where they will be recording and collecting footage. The city committed to spend the funds on two security cameras and purchase up to five more, according to the staff report Thursday.

The approved policy made minor language changes to the previous draft, such as that the footage collected by the tower cameras may be accessed for “legitimate law enforcement purposes,” including training, investigative research, crime analysis and media relations. It also states that the towers cannot be intentionally used to invade people’s privacy or to observe areas where people “have a reasonable expectation of privacy.” 

The policy also requires that footage be purged after 30 days “unless it has become, or it is reasonable to believe it will become, evidence in a criminal or civil action or is subject to a discovery request or other lawful action to produce records.” 

The board in January had concerns about the policy’s first draft, which says that LiveView employees may access live monitoring and historical video footage. 

The policy notes that the Vallejo Police Department will allow its staff to access footage gathered by the cameras “on a need-to-know, right-to-know basis,” as determined by the operations bureau captain. Police Capt. Jerome Bautista told the board in January that all data is stored for up to 30 days, after which it is deleted unless the department decides to purchase it for an investigation. The company can view the unedited footage and doesn’t receive the copies when the city takes footage and edits it for any reason, he said.

In addition, the police department has said that the AI and facial recognition features on each mobile security tower “are not activated.” Those features are instead triggered for an employee to manually monitor footage when a person nearby the camera loiters for up to a minute, according to LiveView.

The draft policy also stated that, alongside similar state laws around data sharing, the Vallejo Police Department does not permit the sharing of data gathered by the city or its contractors “for the purpose of federal immigration enforcement.” However, data may be shared with law enforcement partners for law enforcement purposes or with media outlets or on department social media with the approval of the chief of police, according to the updated policy.