More people in Reno — including law-abiding residents — could unknowingly have their comings-and-goings tracked by police.

On Wednesday, the Reno City Council approved an expansion of the police department’s use of automatic license plate readers.

The devices and associated software would be part of an ongoing Reno Police Department program aimed at reducing gun violence.

“We want our dangerous criminals off the streets, and that is what this grant is focused on,” Police Chief Jason Soto told the council. “We are trying to reduce violent gun crimes in the city of Reno.”

But increased use of mass surveillance technology around the city is raising concerns about the potential for abuse.

“Your neighbors would find that really creepy if you were sitting down writing down everyone’s comings and goings,” said David Maass, a visiting professor at University of Nevada, Reno’s Reynolds School of Journalism who has studied automatic license plate readers, or LPRs. “You are tracking people who have no involvement in a crime whatsoever.”

Maass said the appearance of the item on the council’s consent agenda, typically a portion of council meetings reserved for non-controversial items that aren’t expected to generate debate, was especially troubling.

“Maybe they should have done more fact-finding before unanimously approving a very, very invasive technology,” Maass said.

How is the information shared?

Another aspect of the program Maass found troubling was conflicting explanations from city employees regarding how the information is shared.

On Tuesday, spokesmen for the city and police department told the Reno Gazette Journal that information from existing license plate readers and the new ones isn’t shared with federal agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, nor would it be.

But on Wednesday, Soto acknowledged instances of routine data sharing after Maass shared on Twitter public documents he and his journalism students acquired months ago showing the city does provide many agencies, including ICE, license plate data from Reno.

“I don’t know how they could with a straight face make that claim knowing this document has been released,” Maass said. “They were caught misleading the city council, and the city council didn’t seem particularly alarmed by that.”

Concerns about data sharing with ICE are important to preventing crime in immigrant communities. Immigrants, who are more likely than citizens to be victims of crime, can be wary of reporting crimes if they are worried it could lead to conflict with federal officials over immigration status.

Soto said Reno police are sensitive to the problem and aren’t interested in residents’ immigration status. And he said he wouldn’t approve data sharing unless it was aimed at reducing violent crime.

“If we do a traffic stop, we are not asking what is your immigration status,” Soto said.

Potential for abuse

While Soto said he maintains control over who accesses stored LPR data, the private company that provides the technology has been the subject of multiple journalistic investigations that uncovered examples of agencies such as ICE buying unfettered access to information collected by local law enforcement.

A March 2019 investigation by the American Civil Liberties Union into practices by the company, Vigilant Solutions, showed, “data that is collected by local and state law enforcement agencies across the country who are already Vigilant customers … could provide hundreds of millions more LPR scans available for ICE to search.”

Organizations such as MuckRock and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has published Maass’ work, have also reported on the use of LPRs.

Maass said immigrant residents who are worried about increased exposure to ICE aren’t the only people who could be harmed by mass surveillance.

He said people concerned about religious privacy, people with a desire to keep a medical condition private and people who want to avoid tracking by a malicious domestic partner should be concerned about the potential for abuse. He also said LPRs have been used to gather information at gun shows.

“There is a lot of potential for abuse,” Maass said.

Unanimous approval

A blog post by a Vigilant official responded to criticism by pointing out that local police and other agencies use instant access to data for real time, “alerts for a license plate of interest on stolen vehicles, wanted felons and outstanding warrants allow law enforcement to take immediate action.”

The item the council approved unanimously Wednesday allows the police department to use federal grant money to spend up to $117,000 to buy six fixed and two mobile LPRs.

Soto said the department would use them to target areas of high gun violence.

Council members spoke approvingly of the plan and Soto’s assurances it would be used responsibly before voting unanimously to approve the spending.

“Ultimately you are the gatekeeper,” Councilman Oscar Delgado told Soto. “I trust in that. I think that is what I needed to hear from you.”

Benjamin Spillman covers the outdoors and environment in Northern Nevada, from backcountry skiing in the Sierra to the latest from Lake Tahoe's ecosystem. Support his work by subscribing to RGJ.com right here.