A San Diego, California court has ruled that a tech entrepreneur will not be allowed to access his license plate reader (LPR) records from a regional government agency.

Earlier this month, Superior Court Judge Katherine Bacal handed down a six-page decision to Michael Robertson, finding that he does not have the right, under the California Public Records Act (CPRA), to access records of his own license plate as scanned by members of the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG).

Judge Bacal found that the LPR records were exempt from the CPRA, under a provision of the law that protects “records of investigation,” and under a catch-all section if releasing such records is not in the public interest. As she wrote in the Statement of Decision:

Petitioner has not articulated how his LPR data will contribute to the public’ s understanding of the government. On the other hand, disclosure of the LPR data will be detrimental to the public’s interest. As explained above, the data is collected and used to investigate criminal-activity, and disclosure of that information can be used to hinder law enforcement’s efforts to identify and apprehend criminals and to protect 'victims of criminal activity. The Court finds the public interest in nondisclosure clearly outweighs the public interest in disclosure.

The decision against Robertson, who has been involved in some high-profile legal disputes with the recording industry for over a decade, is the second one this month where courts have found that the petitioners do not have the right to access such data.

Earlier this month, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU SoCal) lost their appeal in a case filed against the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department to gain access to one week’s worth of LPR data as a way to better understand this surveillance technology.

Law enforcement in the San Diego area, as is the case in many other cities nationwide, use these specialized cameras to scan cars and compare them at incredible speeds to a "hot list" of stolen or wanted vehicles. In some cases, that data is kept for weeks, months, or even years.

While Robertson only asked for data about himself, handing over such records by a California law enforcement agency is not without precedent. Ars was successful in obtaining personal LPR records from the Santa Monica, Berkeley, and Oakland police departments.

Earlier this year, Ars obtained 4.6 million LPR records collected by the police in Oakland over four years and learned that just 0.16 percent of those reads were "hits." We discovered that such data is incredibly revelatory—we were even able to find the city block where a member of the city council lives, using nothing but the database, a related data visualization tool, and his license plate number.

The judge in the initial court ruling found that the law enforcement agencies could withhold LPR records—which include a plate number, date, time, and GPS location—through a particular exemption under the California Public Records Act that allows investigatory records to be kept private.

Robertson’s lawyer, Paul Boylan, told Ars he would be appealing the decision.