Is SLO County’s digital security ready for the age of ICE? | Opinion
Throughout San Luis Obispo County, data gathering on unsuspecting, law-abiding residents takes place every day, nearly around the clock.
Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) could have unfettered access to this data.
This data gathering is part of a wide-ranging domestic surveillance program that facilitates most raids by masked, armed federal immigration agents.
San Luis Obispo County and each of its seven incorporated cities need strong, local data protection policies to protect our residents from vulnerability. Currently, we have none. This was never discussed at the recent SLO County Board of Supervisors TRUTH Act Community Forum. It should have been. We don’t have 60 days to wait.
How ICE gathers data
ICE hunts down targets by surveilling the general public. Phone records, text messages, video surveillance, facial recognition tracking and government partnerships provide enough data to track whereabouts, work and school schedules, and patterns of social life.
Some of the enabling technologies are automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) and police observation devices (PODs) — surveillance cameras typically operated by third-party contractors — that allow law enforcement agencies to map patterns of life based on where your car goes and your face appears.
The SLO County Sheriff’s Office uses both. In a 2019 ACLU report, the Sheriff’s Office was accused of sharing ALPR data with ICE through a data-sharing agreement with the technology company Vigilant Solutions. A sheriff’s spokesman denied it at the time.
When asked for comment, current sheriff’s spokesperson Tony Cipolla maintained that denial, stating the department has no data-sharing agreements with ICE.
Whether or not contractors have agreements with ICE — like leading ALPR companies Flock and Vigilant do — this data is stored in both sheriffs’ and contractors’ databases, and according to CalMatters, has been made accessible to ICE without enforced warrant or transparency requirements. Law enforcement IT departments could be informally granting database access without sheriffs or police chiefs even knowing.
The more surveillance data law enforcement agencies have, the more that’s available to ICE.
What’s happening in SLO County
Locally, other jurisdictions are also using these surveillance techniques: The Grover Beach Police Department has a contract with Flock, as does Cal Poly — there’s even a student petition against it.
The city of SLO has an $80,000-per-year contract with an unnamed POD company, as detailed in the city’s 2025-27 budget. SLOPD currently operates around 16 PODs plus numerous ALPRs.
The website deflock.me details the precise location of each ALPR camera in the county. There are many. This is how ICE can know where we are.
Calling on our elected leaders
The city of Santa Cruz, Santa Clara County and San Francisco have made headway protecting their communities’ data by terminating contracts with Flock, banning facial recognition use by law enforcement, and leading California’s fight against this voracious data-hoarding program.
These efforts in other California jurisdictions prove SLO County supervisors and city councilmembers have the power to create policy barriers even when they can’t directly control the sheriff.
Sheriff Ian Parkinson has shown he’s willing to operate in the messy ambiguity of California’s sanctuary protections. Without explicit digital safeguards, his department could create a surveillance infrastructure that makes ICE’s job easier — whether through direct collaboration or by collecting data that ICE could access through federal programs or data brokers.
What are our elected leaders doing to protect the digital rights and safety of our community?
Like their counterparts in other California counties, our electeds could end surveillance camera contracts. They could also require public approval before new surveillance tech can be used by our law enforcement, ban ALPR and POD data sharing with federal immigration enforcement, and establish independent data oversight of our sheriff’s compliance with sanctuary state laws.
SLO County needs data protection policies that place transparency, real action and accountability in the foreground.
Supervisors and councilmembers, if your jurisdiction does not have oversight policies to assure SLO County public’s personal data are protected from federal intrusion, your community needs you to act — now.
Clara Fulks is a digital ethicist and consultant specializing in AI safety and information integrity, and is the CEO of North Star Strategies. Born, raised and based in San Luis Obispo, Clara holds an MSc in artificial intelligence from the University of Edinburgh and a BA in Linguistics from San Diego State University.