04 Public search-auditing is a switch the vendor flips
Whether residents can audit police searches at all is a toggle in the vendor's console, not a policy.
When the department first set up its cameras in 2021, the police chief had to ask for the public to be able to audit searches — and the vendor toggled it like any other setting:
From: Chief Michael Greene, Benicia PD — August 26, 2021, 12:27 PM: “I don’t see the area where the public can audit our searches? I’d like that part included. And can we remove the area that shows hotlist policy and organizations we’re sharing with?”
From: Graham Carter, Flock Safety — August 26, 2021, 12:30 PM: “Yes I can turn back on the auditing. And turn off the other parts!”
From: Graham Carter — shortly after: “This has been done!”
Why it matters: Public auditing isn’t a fixed guarantee — it’s a vendor-controlled toggle that can be turned “back on” or “off” at the department’s request. The same three-minute exchange also turned off the public list of agencies receiving Benicia’s data — see finding #9, which treats that half of the request in full.
Source: Re_ ALPR policy(3).txt (PR-2025-159); the same thread appears as
RE_ ALPR policy(11).txt and Re_ ALPR policy(12).txt (PR-2025-199).
The documents behind this
Read them yourself — that is the point.
| Document | Request |
|---|---|
| RE_ ALPR policy(11).pdf | PR-2025-199 |
| Re_ ALPR policy(12).pdf | PR-2025-199 |
| Re_ ALPR policy(3).pdf | PR-2025-159 |
Full write-up source: BENICIA-FLOCK-FINDINGS.md in the records archive. Every
quotation is transcribed from a PDF the City produced under the California Public Records
Act. Redacted and image-only scans were run through OCR, so minor spacing artifacts may
remain; wording is unchanged.