Questions. Context. Sources.
Common questions,
clear answers.
Straightforward answers about Burbank's ALPR system — plus the concerns residents raise and what the public record says, the reported outcomes, the options ahead, and where to read the record yourself.
Start with the questions that do not fit anywhere else
The basics, the Council action, reported outcomes, and cost. Privacy, sharing, access, and errors are covered separately below so the same explanation is not repeated twice.
Public concerns, and what the record says
The questions residents raise most, paired with what the policy and public record establish. Neutral and evidence-based.
Privacy
Is this a constant record of where I go?
Structural exposure, constrained by rules
A fixed ALPR records most passing vehicles — about 99% of Burbank reads match no hot list. Retention (30 days), California-only sharing, and access limits are what constrain that exposure.
Immigration
Could this be used for immigration enforcement?
Prohibited by policy and state law
Immigration enforcement is a listed prohibited use; Policy 462 and the Values Act bar it. One 2025 federal (VA Police) access event — not immigration — was caught by audit and corrected.
Data access
Who can access the data, and under what conditions?
Authorized access, logged and audited
Access is limited to authorized personnel via role-based permissions and MFA. Every search requires a reason and is logged; the system is audited annually.
Errors
What if a license plate is read incorrectly?
An investigative lead, not proof
An ALPR read is one data point. Policy 462 states officers "should verify" a response through CLETS before acting — the read is meant to be confirmed, not treated as proof.
This resource limits itself to Burbank's record; events in other cities are outside its scope. Each statement links to its source on the Sources page.
Results from the public record
What Burbank's official materials report about the program. These are stated contributions, not effectiveness rates.
Over a recent 30-day period the portal recorded ~1.56M unique vehicles and 10,174 hot-list hits — roughly 99% of reads match no hot list. The outcome counts are not paired with a false-alert rate or the share of cases where ALPR generated the lead, so they cannot be read as an effectiveness rate. Cost is the FY2024–25 not-to-exceed figure; later-year pricing is not established.
Explore the tradeoffs
A transparent man-hours model — not sourced data. It starts from the two figures the record establishes (annual cost, and BPD's statement that the system saved "hundreds" of staff hours) and lets you set every assumption.
Blue values are the two official anchors ($150,000; "hundreds" of hours). Everything else is an assumption you set — not an official figure.
Scenario result
A man-hours figure measures time saved, not cases that would otherwise go unsolved — so it understates what removal could change. Every number here is an assumption you set.
Options for moving forward
There are different paths available. Each comes with tradeoffs. This is an explainer — it names no preferred option.
Keep with safeguards
Continue the program with strong oversight, logging, and transparency — tightening verification and audit rules.
Limit use
Narrow the program's scope — for example fewer locations or a shorter retention window.
Replace the vendor
Keep the capability under a new provider or a city-controlled model — with procurement and transition tradeoffs.
Discontinue ALPR
End the program; the work shifts to other methods or goes unmet. Data ages out under the 30-day rule.
Two decisions, not one: whether to keep ALPR as a capability and whether Flock should remain the provider are separate questions. Replacement and discontinuation costs are not established in the public record.
Key terms, in plain English
A quick guide to the terms that come up most in Burbank's ALPR conversation.
ALPR
A camera that automatically reads license plates from passing cars and logs each plate with the time and location.
Hot list
A list of plates police want flagged — e.g., cars reported stolen or linked to a wanted person. A match triggers an alert.
Retention
How long data is kept before it's automatically deleted. Burbank's setting is 30 days.
Audit log
A record of who searched the system, when, and for what stated purpose.
Nationwide Lookup
A Flock feature to search other agencies' cameras across the country. Burbank says it has this turned off.
Denominator
The total needed to turn a raw count into a rate. Without total scans and alerts, you can't tell how often the system is right or wrong.
Policy 462
Burbank Police Department's own written rulebook for the plate-reader program. It's department policy, not a law.
SB 34 & Values Act
California's 2015 ALPR law (SB 34) and its "sanctuary" law (SB 54) — the statutes Burbank cites for its policy and for not sharing with ICE.
Need the source behind an answer?
Open the source library for the policies, statutes, contracts, and records cited throughout this page.