Hermosa Beach police operate 29 license plate reader cameras across the city but cannot say how many crimes the technology has helped solve.

The department has no numbers. Police Captain Eric Cahalan told the City Council at its Tuesday, Sept. 22, meeting that crime-solve statistics tied to the cameras simply aren't compiled, as first reported by the Hermosa Review.

Councilmember Ray Jackson pressed Cahalan for an annual report on cases investigated and solved using plate reader leads. "Was it 20? Was it 200? Was it zero?" Jackson asked. "I mean, this is 2026." Council candidate Elka Worner also called for published results, citing concerns about privacy and cost.

The Hermosa Beach Police Department's 29 cameras come from four vendors and include fixed units at intersections along Pacific Coast Highway, Aviation Boulevard, Hermosa Avenue, Monterey Boulevard and Manhattan Avenue, plus cameras mounted on patrol cars and parking enforcement vehicles. Each camera takes a single still photo of a passing car. There is no video and no facial recognition, Cahalan said.

Cahalan offered one example of the cameras' value. In a recent vehicle break-in where guns were stolen, a Flock Safety camera captured the suspect's plate. Detectives traced it to three people, all arrested. One stolen gun had been used in what Cahalan called "a serious violent crime" in Los Angeles.

The department shares its data with 84 California law enforcement agencies under agreements barring use for immigration enforcement and forbidding sharing with federal agencies. California law separately prohibits sharing the data out of state. Cahalan acknowledged the city cannot control what a partner agency does with data once it receives it, saying the arrangement relies on the signed agreement.

The council discussion comes as Flock Safety, the largest plate reader vendor nationally, faces scrutiny from agencies across California. The LAPD suspended its Flock cameras in July 2026 over data-sharing and privacy concerns, according to the Los Angeles Times. More than 50 agencies or communities have canceled or suspended Flock contracts this year, according to Stateline. In Ventura County, a vendor configuration error let out-of-state agencies run more than 364,000 unauthorized searches against the sheriff's Flock data, CBS News reported.

Mayor Mike Detoy said he put the item on the agenda after reading about a 2025 security flaw in Flock cameras discovered by researcher Jon Gaines. Cahalan said the flaw, which allowed physical access to a single camera's live view, has been fixed with a firmware update. Detoy had already asked city staff in July to review the department's plate reader vendors and contracts for security vulnerabilities, according to the city's meeting recap.

Cahalan said he would work with the department's crime analyst to find a way to produce the solve-rate numbers the council wants. The next regular Hermosa Beach City Council meeting is Oct. 13.