As federal immigration raids intensify across Los Angeles, a new surveillance camera spotted in Venice is raising alarms about how local police infrastructure may be feeding sensitive data into federal hands. The device, mounted discreetly atop a commercial building, resembles technology long used by the LAPD to collect license plate data, video footage, and other personal identifiers. Its appearance comes at a time when immigrant communities are already on high alert.
The timing could not be more concerning. In June, a CalMatters investigation revealed that law enforcement agencies across California—including the LAPD—had illegally shared automated license plate reader (ALPR) data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). These data transfers violate California law, which restricts local-federal cooperation without a judicial warrant. According to the report, more than 100 instances of data sharing with federal immigration authorities occurred in just one month.
The discovery of a surveillance device in Venice has intensified fears that such practices are continuing, even as federal agents are conducting aggressive raids across public spaces in Los Angeles. For many residents, especially those from immigrant and mixed-status families, the growing presence of surveillance hardware is not just a matter of privacy. It is a matter of safety and survival.
Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the Westside including Venice, has pushed to expand LAPD’s surveillance capabilities through the rollout of Real-Time Crime Centers (RTCCs). These centers serve as digital command hubs, pulling together live video streams, license plate data, facial recognition, drone feeds, and predictive policing tools. In early 2024, Park introduced a motion instructing LAPD to expand RTCCs citywide and announced the installation of 100 new ALPR cameras across Council District 11 as part of her “Safer 11” initiative. While Park frames the initiative as a response to property crime, critics say it paves the way for indiscriminate data collection that can be repurposed for federal surveillance.
Community researchers have documented the LAPD’s use of a vast surveillance apparatus including high-definition video, ALPRs, facial recognition, and cell phone tracking systems such as Stingrays and Dirtboxes. These tools are often deployed without public awareness and can be linked into centralized systems that monitor individuals in real time and retroactively reconstruct their movements. Many of these technologies are detailed in the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition’s “Architecture of Surveillance” report, which maps the way LAPD integrates field interview cards, biometric data, and real-time alerts into fusion centers where local and federal agents often operate side-by-side.
The placement of these technologies is far from random. Surveillance devices are disproportionately concentrated in neighborhoods where Black, brown, immigrant, and unhoused residents live or once lived—areas historically targeted by policing and displacement. In Venice, the camera appeared near Oakwood Park, a neighborhood with deep Black history and a recent pattern of gentrification and sweeps of unhoused communities. Such patterns reflect a racialized logic: surveillance infrastructure tends to follow poverty, displacement, and political vulnerability, not necessarily actual crime rates.
Experts warn that the risk is not hypothetical. ALPR systems collect the time, date, and location of every vehicle scanned and store that data in databases accessible to hundreds of agencies. When shared improperly, that information can help ICE locate and detain undocumented residents without community knowledge or legal recourse.
“The LAPD can say all day long that they don’t assist ICE,” said Magan Wiles, a local resident who regularly attends Police Commission meetings. “But they don’t need to physically assist them. They can just tell ICE exactly where anybody is at any given moment.”
The LAPD has not addressed whether new surveillance infrastructure in Council District 11 is operationally linked to the citywide RTCC network or if additional safeguards have been implemented since the CalMatters revelations. The department was previously flagged by the California State Auditor for lacking basic privacy and data retention protocols for its surveillance programs.
In the current climate, these gaps in oversight are not merely technical—they are existential. The quiet installation of surveillance devices in neighborhoods like Venice, combined with a documented pattern of unlawful data sharing, has created a chilling effect. Immigrant families are now left wondering whether the city’s public safety systems are being used to target them.
Wiles urges residents who are concerned about LAPD surveillance to get involved. “The first step is just educating yourself with the ins and outs and the extent to which you’re being surveilled,” she said. “Attend meetings, watch Police Commission hearings, and plug into local organizing. The only thing that slows this down is people showing up and shining light on what’s happening.”