Surveillance Watch Benicia

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Findings on the Mayors questions regarding alpr and

File: Findings on the Mayors questions regarding alpr and NCRIC WISN-Redacted.pdf Request: PR-2026-181 Sent: 2026-06-18 00:00:00 +0000 UTC Type: document Size: 446 KB OCR'd image-only scan

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6/18/20264:56:59PM
Sent:
From:
EdwardCriado<ECriado@ci.benicia.ca.us
To:
"Mark","Jake","Wendy Stratton"
Cc:
Bcc:
Importance: Normal
Subject:
Findings on the Mayors questions regarding alpr and
NCRICWISN
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All,
Ihaveinvestigatedtheconcernsreported abouttheFlockdatasharingbetweentheWesternStatesInformation
Network (WSIN) and the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center (NCRIC). It's important to note that both
organizations receive state funding and work with public safety government programs to support law enforcement
against organized crime, drug trafficking and other harmful threats such as terrorism. They serve as a fusion center
betweenlocal state andfederal agencies.
In this instance, WISN had two analysts assigned to NCRIC as part of the fusion center, like a task force. These two
analysts believed they were doing their jobs when they accessed and shared information with out of state and federal
agencies. They were aware they could not share or search for any data related to reproductive investigations or
immigration investigations, but they did not fully understand the restrictions on any out of state or federal sharing due
toSB34.AlthoughBenicia cameras were included in some of thesesearches thatwere conductedfor out of state
agencies or federal agencies (DEA), none of their inquiries or searches were related to immigration or reproductive
rights. The searches they shared were for Homicide, Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), Drug trafficking
(Fentanyl) and other serious criminal investigations. They provided clear reasons for each inquiry.
We have clear expectations of the agencies we share our data with andNCRIC has a signed MOUwithBenicia.The
upside to this story is that the auditing process works and discovered a training and personnel issue within
NCRIC. NCRIC did not make an intentional decision to violate the MOU. They had two analysts assigned to their
fusion center that had not been properly trained to completely understand SB34 and its restrictions. This knowledge
gap resulted in a violation of policy and SB34. Transparency is not the absence or misuse or mistakes. Instead,
transparency is the surfacing of misuse or mistakes sowe can better manage and use the system correctly.Mistakes
place to identify these instances and address them when they appear. Flock has systematically improved upon the
system to make it easier to identify instances of abuse or misuse. Without these systems in place, this audit likely
would not have discovered this issue.SFPD certainly could have done a better job with their press release and
explainingwhat actually happened.
Ted

Edward Criad o 川 Deputy Police Chief PoliceDepartment 1941 POLICE O:707-746-4259 THE ECriado@ci.benicia.ca.us BENICIA CITY www.ci.benicia.ca.us/police

Public Records Exemptions Enclosed please find a copy of the response documents for your public process employed to review and produce the response documents. Reason Description Pages 1 of 1