Santa Clara County CA SO

Transparency Portal

Last Updated: Thu Mar 28 2024
Overview
Santa Clara County CA SO uses Flock Safety technology to capture objective evidence without compromising on individual privacy. Santa Clara County CA SO utilizes retroactive search to solve crimes after they've occurred. Additionally, Santa Clara County CA SO utilizes real time alerting of hotlist vehicles to capture wanted criminals. In an effort to ensure proper usage and guardrails are in place, they have made the below policies and usage statistics available to the public.
Policies
What's Detected
License Plates, Vehicles
What's Not Detected
Facial recognition, People, Gender, Race
Acceptable Use Policy
Data is used for law enforcement purposes only. Data is owned by the City of Los Altos Hills and the City of Saratoga with the Sheriff's office acting as operators in the interest of public safety. Data is never sold to 3rd parties.
Prohibited Uses
Immigration enforcement, traffic enforcement, harrassment or intimidation, usage based solely on a protected class (i.e. race, sex, religion), Personal use.
Access Policy
All system access requires a valid reason and access data is stored indefinitely. The associated case or incident report number is shown as the reason for accessing system data in the Public Search Audit.
Hotlist Policy
Hotlist hits are required to be human verified prior to action.
Usage
Data retention (in days)
30 days
Number of owned cameras
53
External organizations with access
Santa Clara County CA SO
Hotlists Alerted On
California SVS, NCMEC Amber Alert
Vehicles detected in the last 30 days
417,391
Hotlist hits in the last 30 days
971
Searches in the last 30 days
98
Public Search Audit
Additional Info
City of Saratoga Success Stories
July 2022: A Saratoga resident reported people entering their backyard and stealing patio furniture. Although the residents surveillance camera captured images of the vehicle used to steal the patio furniture, the incident occurred at night and the camera was unable to detect the vehicles license plate number. A nearby ALPR camera was able to detect the vehicles license plate at night and this information provided an investigative lead that allowed the Sheriffs Office to identify one of the suspects responsible for the theft. September 2022: A call was reported to the Sheriffs Office that a group of suspects followed a Saratoga resident from a retail store to the victim's residence, entered the open garage of the victim's residence where the victim was unloading groceries from his vehicle. One of the suspects then pointed a firearm at the victim, demanded the victim's Rolex watch and cash from the victim's wallet, to which the victim complied. The victim gave a good description of the vehicle. Using that information, the known time frame of the crime, and the ALPR system, deputies were able to share identifying information with other law enforcement organizations and the suspect was ultimately arrested by a partner agency. October 2022: Deputies received an ALPR hit in Saratoga for a stolen vehicle. The vehicle was located and stopped. In addition to possession of a stolen vehicle, the driver also had an outstanding warrant for prowling and was arrested. The vehicle was returned to the registered owner. November 2022: Deputies received an ALPR hit for a vehicle associated with felony crimes in Saratoga. The vehicle was located, deputies attempted to stop the vehicle, but the suspect driver did not yield and recklessly evaded until running out of gas on State Route 85, where the suspect was taken into custody. January 2023: Deputies received an ALPR hit for a stolen vehicle in Saratoga. The vehicle was located a short time later, and deputies attempted an enforcement stop, but the suspect driver did not yield and recklessly evaded. The suspect's vehicle eventually became disabled and the suspect was detained without further incident. The suspect admitted to knowing the vehicle was stolen and also had an outstanding warrant for auto theft and was driving without a license. The suspect was arrested.
Additional Info