The Brief

More license plate readers will be installed in the Cheviot Hills neighborhood of West L.A. amid privacy concerns and revelations that police agencies are sharing data with immigration enforcement operations.

Automated license plate readers, also known as ALPRs, are usually installed at intersections and capture images of every license plate passing through. The data is stored with law enforcement agencies and can be used to find a vehicle owner’s information.

State law limits who can access the information, who it can be shared with, and how long the data can be kept. However, police agencies in California — including the L.A. Police Department — have illegally shared ALPR data with federal immigration agents, CalMatters reported.

But for some communities, the potential benefits of the ALPR cameras far exceed whatever privacy concerns people may have.

Why does Cheviot Hills want cameras? 

Cindy Kane, secretary of the Cheviot Hills Neighborhood Association, said people living in the community requested the cameras because of recent home burglaries and calls for more safety measures.

Privacy concerns were considered before the neighborhood moved forward with the project, Kane added.

“It is important to note that the ALPRs will only collect and record information that is exposed to public view, where there is no reasonable expectation of privacy,” Kane wrote in an email. “Thus, we do not believe ALPRs unreasonably interfere with the privacy rights of drivers in Cheviot Hills.”

As far as providing information to ICE, Kane said L.A. is a sanctuary city and LAPD’s policy prohibits such sharing.

The City Council last week approved the transfer of $114,000 to the nonprofit L.A. Police Foundation to purchase and install the plate readers from Flock Safety. Kane said the neighborhood chose to work with the tech company because of its “stellar” reputation.

Flock created a national search network for law enforcement agencies that “want to verify a specific license plate’s location,” allowing agencies to access local and national data.

L.A. City Council member Katy Yaroslavsky, who represents District 5, which includes the Cheviot Hills neighborhood, facilitated the transfer of funds.

Some communities in the San Fernando Valley and West L.A. already have license plate readers.

What about LAPD’s data? 

When asked by the L.A. Police Commission about the department’s data sharing policies, Commander Randy Goddard said data isn’t shared with any federal agents, especially ICE, based on state law and the department’s policy.

LAPD shares this kind of data with only five other agencies, according to Goddard. Those agencies include the Huntington Park, La Mesa, West Covina and Livermore police departments, and the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department.

“Any agency in the state of California is still under the umbrella of the law,” Goddard said. “Every agency is held to the same standard that they cannot share ALPR data or resources for immigration purposes.”

Officers are required to log the reason for a search any time they look for ALPR information.

The LAPD did not respond to LAist’s requests for comment on reports that the department illegally shared license plate reader data with ICE and Customs and Border Protection.

What about privacy concerns? 

License plate readers have long been criticized over privacy concerns. The ACLU reported in 2019 that it discovered through a public records request that law enforcement agencies were sharing plate information with ICE. The organization called for community ordinances that required transparency and oversight of this technology.

“ICE has long embraced technology to target immigrants. Now it’s taking surveillance to an unprecedented level to target vulnerable communities — and sweeping up everyone else in the process,” the ACLU wrote.

Matthew Guariglia, senior policy analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said ALPRs don’t only track criminals — they track everyone. A license plate number links to your registration, which links to your DMV file, which has your photo and home address, he said.

“There are always ways that companies want to expand the information that police can learn just from scanning a single license plate,” Guariglia said. “So your online profile, your name, links to your social media accounts, all of these things can be very easily linked to an identity created and triggered by scanning your license plate number.”

In this day and age, he said, it’s hard to know what will or won’t be considered illegal. For example, the license plate reader data can be accessed to target protestors whose views combat those of the federal government, Guariglia added.

“Suddenly, something you thought was a First Amendment protected activity now lands you under scrutiny of police,” Guariglia said. “And suddenly that license plate reader data, which you thought was so innocuous, is a lot less innocuous.”

Police are not above breaking the law, Guariglia said.

“It's hard when you have police departments that are so untransparent, where you don't know what's happening behind the scenes," Guariglia said. "It's very easy for them to defy exactly what they've been ordered not to do."

The Los Angeles World Cup host committee has quietly posted its guidance on human rights after months of speculation over where the plan was and when it would be published.

Advocates had pushed the committee, an arm of the Los Angeles Sports & Entertainment Commission, to produce its plan. But now that it's out, they're not satisfied with what they're seeing.

The human rights guidance is required by FIFA and outlined on the host committee's website. It includes a list of online resources including where to file complaints with various local and state level agencies and a summary of local, state and federal laws protecting human and civil rights. The committee is also touting a partnership with L.A. County in which people can call 211 to report a concern during the tournament.

"Los Angeles is weeks away from hosting one of the largest sporting events in the world, and yet what has been posted is not a plan,” Stephanie Richard, director of the Sunita Jain Anti‑Trafficking Initiative at Loyola Law School, said in a statement. “It is a list of laws and hotline numbers."

The human rights document also skirts fears around ICE and its potential presence at the tournament and surrounding celebrations. Todd Lyons, the agency's head, said earlier this year that ICE's investigatory branch will play a key role in security for the tournament.

But ICE and immigration enforcement aren't mentioned on the host committee's web page on human rights or in its outline of its approach to human rights. "Immigration status" only gets a mention in the list of existing anti-discrimination laws.

"It certainly could have been much stronger," Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles, said of the plan. She added that her organization participated in a roundtable on the plan, and she was disappointed ICE and recent immigration sweeps weren't mentioned in the resulting document.

"In order for all of this to happen, immigrant workers are part of it," she said of the World Cup. "Your hotel workers, your service workers, stadium workers, drivers." 

LAist reached out to spokespeople for the host committee for comment via email, phone and text, but did not hear back in time for publication. FIFA's press team also did not respond to an email from LAist.

According to the host committee's website, the human rights plan is the result of coordination with the city and county of Los Angeles, the city of Inglewood, and 14 roundtable discussions held in the fall of 2025.

"As a non-profit organization, the Host Committee’s role is primarily and necessarily focused on aligning and collaborating with governmental and non-governmental organizations," the document sums up the committee's approach.

The plan also promises more actions, including "Know Your Rights" training for L.A. residents and visitors and "Know Your Responsibilities" training for businesses and vendors. The committee also says it will develop a "rapid response" strategy to respond to potential problems at the tournament.

Available details on those plans were scant. And with the tournament just 30 days away, labor unions and community groups are continuing to voice concerns about potential ICE presence at SoFi Stadium and other potential consequences of the tournament coming to town.

The mayor of Arcadia has agreed to plead guilty to a charge she acted as an agent for China, federal prosecutors announced Monday. She has resigned from her position with the city.

Eileen Wang, 58, faces one count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The charge carries a potential sentence of up to 10 years in federal prison.

What we know about the criminal case

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Wang and Yaoning “Mike” Sun of Chino Hills worked at the direction of the Chinese government and with individuals based in the U.S. to promote pro-People’s Republic of China propaganda in the United States. Those actions occurred between 2020 and 2022, prosecutors said.

According to federal prosecutors, Wang and Sun operated a website — known as U.S. News Center — billed as a news source for the local Chinese American community in Los Angeles County. They posted content on the site, described as "pre-written articles," based on directives from Chinese government officials.

Sun, 65, pleaded guilty in October 2025 in federal court to acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government. He is serving a four-year federal prison sentence.

Prosecutors also said Wang communicated with John Chen, whom they described as “a high-level member of the [Chinese government] intelligence apparatus,” in November 2021, and asked him to post an article from her website.

In a group chat, Wang referenced the article and wrote: “This is what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wants to send,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Chen pleaded guilty in New York to acting as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China and conspiracy to bribe a public official. In 2024, he was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison.

What's next

Wang, who was elected to the City Council in November 2022, was expected to make her first appearance in U.S. District Court Monday afternoon.

Citing a plea agreement, prosecutors said she's expected to enter the guilty plea within the next few weeks.

Arcadia's mayor is selected from the elected council members. A post on the city's website announced that Wang had resigned her position as of Monday and that a new mayor would be picked from the remaining council members at the next meeting.

The Supreme Court on Monday gave itself more time to consider a national ban on telemedicine access to the abortion pill mifepristone.

Justice Samuel Alito extended an earlier order he issued by three more days, so rules for prescribing mifepristone online or through the mail remain in effect through Thursday at a minimum.

The case at issue

The tumult over the future of telemedicine access to mifipristone started on May 1 with a ruling from the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. That ruling re-instituted prescribing rules from before the pandemic that required patients to receive mifepristone in person in a doctor's office or clinic.

The Food and Drug Administration determined that the rule was medically unnecessary in 2021. The state of Louisiana sued last fall, arguing that telemedicine access undermines the state's abortion ban.

What is telemedicine abortion?

The telemedicine abortion process starts with a patient connecting with a healthcare provider on the phone or online. If the patient is eligible, that provider can prescribe two medications — mifepristone and another pill called misoprostol. Patients can pick up the medicine at a local pharmacy, or providers can mail the drugs to a patient's home.

That access is a big part of the reason why the number of abortions nationally has actually increased since the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in 2022. Now, most abortions in the U.S. use this combination of medications, and one quarter happen via telemedicine.

After the 5th Circuit ruling, some providers said they would continue offering telemedicine access to abortion medication using a different protocol that involves higher doses of misoprostol and no mifepristone.

Researchers say that method is just as safe and effective, but tends to cause more pain for patients and more side effects, like nausea and diarrhea. Misoprostol has other medical uses, such as treating gastric ulcers and hemorrhage, and has been on the market longer than mifepristone. It is likely to remain fully accessible, even if mifepristone is restricted.

Since the FDA's prescribing rules for medications apply to the whole country, a change to the rules about how mifepristone can be accessed has national impact. That means it affects states with constitutionally-protected access to abortion, states with criminal bans, like Louisiana, and all states in between.

States' rights

Nearly two dozen Democratic-led states submitted an amicus brief in this case, writing that the appeals court decision put the policy choices of states with bans above the choices of states "that have made the different but equally sovereign determinations to promote access to abortion care."

There are also stakes related to the power of FDA and other expert agencies to set rules. While the Trump administration's FDA did not respond to the Supreme Court's request for briefs, a group of former leaders of the agency, who served under mainly Democratic and some Republican presidents, wrote about this in an amicus brief.

They defended the FDA's process in approving the medication and modifying the rules for prescribing it, and say the appeals court decision "would upend FDA's gold-standard, science-based drug approval system."

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