Policy Text
1 University of California, San Francisco
Police Department General Orders
4.7 Patrol Operations: Vehicle Equipment and Uniform
4.7.17 Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR) Systems (Revised: 5/24/23 )
A. Purpose and Scope
The UCSF Police and Transportation Departments serve a campus community of over
48,000 undergraduate and post -doctoral students, faculty, staff, patients and visitors by
providing law enforcement, security, parking and transportation services.
To promote on -campus safety and facilitate operations, the UCSF Police and
Transportation Departments utilize Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR)
systems to automatically capture images of vehicle license plates and convert the images
into computer -readable, ALPR data. The UCSF Police Department utilizes ALPR
technology in patrol cars to monitor Campus streets and roadways, and UCSF
Transportation uses a separate ALPR system to monitor vehicles within UCSF parking
facilities.
License plate information of persons of concern (e.g., persons who have been issued a
campus “stay away” or restraining order or persons posing a threat to a member of the
UCSF community) will be sent by the UCSF Police Department to the UCSF
Transportation Department as soon as possible. “Hot Sheet” (stolen vehicle license
plates list) information will be forwarded on a regular basis through an automated
process or manually uploaded into the ALPR system.
The ALPR system automatically compares the license plate data of the vehicles it scans
to the license plate information on the list and issues an alert if there is a match. Once an
alert is received, the operator should confirm that the observed license plate matches the
license plate of the observed vehicle. Before any law enforcement action is taken as a
result of an ALPR alert , the alert shall be verified through a CLETS inquiry via MDC or
through the ECC. Officers will not take any police action that restricts the freedom of
any individual based solely on an ALPR alert unless it is validated. Because an ALPR
alert may relate t o a vehicle but not to the person operating the vehicle, officers are
reminded that they need to have probable cause to make an enforcement stop of any
vehicle. (For example, if a vehicle is entered into the system because of its association
with a wanted individual , officers should visually match the driver to the description of
the wanted subject prior to making the stop or have another legal basis for stopping the
vehicle.)
The purpose of this General Order is to ensure that only authorized ALPR users operate
the UCSF Police ALPR system, and that UCSF Police ALPR data is handled in
accordance with relevant federal, state and local laws.
B. Definitions
2 University of California, San Francisco
Police Department General Orders
1. Anonymized Data : Data from which personally identifiable information has been
removed.
2. Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR) : A technology that uses optical
character recognition or other similar software to automatically read license plate
characters via a system of fixed or mobile vehicle -mounted cameras.
3. Data Hosting : Utilization of an external data storage site operated by a campus
vendor to store information.
C. Data Usage and Sharing Policy
1. Data Usage
ALRP data may be collected and used for official business purposes only,
including, but not limited to:
a. Maint aining campus safety
ALPR data is used to detect when a vehicle on campus or entering a
campus parking facility is owned by or known to be owned by an
individual who has been issued an official campus “stay away” or court -
ordered restraining order, who is the subject of a law enforcement bulletin
or who poses a threat to one or more member of the campus community.
b. Parking business operatio ns
c. Parking management
d. Occupancy counting
e. Violator location
f. Rules enforcement.
2. Data Sharing
a. ALPR data collected by the UCSF Police Department may be shared with
outside law enforcement agencies and other public agencies in accordance
with applicable law and, at the discretion of the Chief of Police or his/her
designee, in support of law enforcement investigations, academic research
or other legal activities.
b. The sale of ALPR data is prohibited. However, providing ALPR data to
data hosting or towing services is not considered to be the sale, sharing or
transferring of ALPR information (Civil Code § 1798.90.55).
c. Data sharing or hosting with any entity, within or outside of UCSF, must
be accompanied by a written request and confirmed with the requestor at
the time the request is filed.
d. Data sharing/hosting agreements must impose data security requirements
that are consistent with federal, state and local laws and UC policy.
D. Responsibilities
1. Official Custodian
The TSD Director is the Official Custodian of the Police ALPR system.
2. Authorized Users
3 University of California, San Francisco
Police Department General Orders
a. The Police ALPR system shall be used only for the purposes described in
section C above, by employees who have completed the required
training and as authorized by the Chief of Police or his/her designee.
b. Personnel authorized by the Chief of Police or h is/her designee to manage
ALPR system and data access operations include:
(1) Sworn personnel
(2) Public safety dispatchers
(3) Evidence and Records Technicians .
c. Other positions must be