the California Attorney General warned police about the license plate data law. They ignored him, and sold or shared the data with as many as 130 other agencies... illegally

The police department for El Cajon, a city near San Diego, made the information available to more than 130 non-California agencies.

The College of the Sequoias District Police Department, in the Central Valley, was second with 91.

The Menifee Police Department, in the Inland Empire, was the third highest with 30.

A report published Wednesday by the Sacramento County grand jury found the Sheriff’s Office and Sacramento Police Department both recently shared license plate data out of state.

Law enforcement agencies say the readers are a powerful aid to solving crimes. Along with scanning license plates, police tout how the cameras can capture other information about vehicles, such as their type, which can help quickly track down suspects. Accessing another department’s data, they add, can be critical to making an arrest. Beyond that, agencies’ desire to share the information centers around a dispute over state law. In 2015, the Legislature passed a bill that said California police departments are only allowed to share license plate data with other public agencies. The Attorney General’s Office argued in an October bulletin that the bill’s definition of a public agency is limited to only those in California. But state police associations countered that the law does not explicitly prohibit the sharing of data outside the state.

https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article288926148.html#storylink=cpy