BART 'accidentally' records tens of thousands of license plates, sends to database accessible to ICE
BART says it accidentally sent information it got from its license plate reader system at the MacArthur BART station in Oakland to a database accessible to federal agencies, including ICE.
The information from those surveillance cameras was being sent to the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center.
A BART spokesman confirms to ABC7 News, the BART board told the police department in April 2016 not to turn them on, but at some point they got activated.
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Our media partner the East Bay Times reports BART sent pictures of 57,632 license plates to the database from at least January through August of last year.
In November, the police department figured out they were recording, and had the license plate readers powered off and completely uninstalled.
BART says it asked to have all the collected info deleted.
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BART says the cameras will remain in storage until the district adopts a surveillance policy.
A BART board meeting is being held at 9 a.m. in Oakland.
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