San Jose police chief says he knew of license plate data probe when he assured council in March
Chief Paul Joseph denied hiding the case. City staff say a ban on using personal phones to search the camera data and more audits can start now.
San Jose Police Chief Paul Joseph told a City Council committee Oct. 28 that he knew the department was investigating an officer for misusing license plate camera data when he assured the council in March that the data "has not gone anywhere it isn't supposed to go," San José Spotlight reported. He denied hiding the case.
The cameras, about 500 of them supplied by Flock Safety, read and log the plates of passing cars. In September the department fired an officer who, police say, used the system to help a relative track a woman accusing him of domestic violence. The paper is not naming the officer.
Joseph said his March answer was about whether outside agencies, such as federal immigration authorities, had gotten the data, and that disclosing the case then could have undermined discipline. "Trust in the police department begins with me," he said.
Critics were not satisfied. "Protecting an investigation and making a broad public assurance are two different things," Sean Allen, president of the NAACP San Jose/Silicon Valley chapter, told the Spotlight.
City staff told the committee some fixes can start now, according to a staff analysis. Joseph ordered officers on Sept. 8 to stop using personal devices for any police database, and the department will write that ban into its rules, audit more searches, report results yearly and publish a memo whenever data is misused. A local law letting harmed people sue needs more study, staff said, because state law already allows such suits.
Source: Rules Committee meeting video, Oct. 28; City staff analysis, Item C.2; Committee agenda