The Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Department has taken a more secretive approach to responding to a California Public Records Act request submitted by the Los Gatan, when compared to how the County law enforcement agency handled the same ask.
Meanwhile, at Council last week, the LGMSPD outlined a plan to beef-up surveillance technology tools like remote-controlled aerial vehicles.
In the coming years, the Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Department will explore the use of Drone as First Responder (DFR) technology—a fleet of drones that would serve as the first set of eyes on a crime scene—to make up for operational gaps and staffing challenges.
The prospect of DFR technology was one of many possible new technologies included in the latest bi-annual Police Services Report, presented by Chief Jamie Field at the Aug. 19 Council meeting.
“The police department has not grown in about two decades,” Field said in a presentation to the Council. “So, our solution to that is really looking towards technology to allow us to be more efficient.”
These evaluations were made in response to an organizational assessment by Meliora Public Safety Consulting from November 2024, during which LGMSPD was given 130 recommendations for areas ranging from risk management to technology integration.
Other recommendations included the development of a Real-Time Crime Center, centralizing video feeds for “rapid intelligence sharing,” as well as a 10-year agreement with Axon—the company that manages the department’s body-worn and in-car cameras and digital evidence systems—to automate paper processes and utilize a translation system through body-worn cameras to communicate with residents.
‘The purpose of this exemption is to aid in the successful completion of investigations.’
—Town Attorney Gabrielle Whelan
During the Council meeting, resident Susan Bassi spoke up about concerns over the Town’s handling of a public records request for exhibits in a code enforcement administrative hearing.
“The Town has a number of policies and procedures that are problematic to public records, and I’m making a complaint and I want it fixed,” Bassi told the council during public comment.
On Aug. 7, LGMSPD provided more than 120,000 records regarding the use of the Town’s Flock Safety Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) cameras, after a series of delays.
The data provided, which include “network audits,” which track searches of cameras by members of area agencies, and “organization audits,” internal searches by LGMSPD, was heavily redacted; names of individuals and organizations performing searches were entirely blotted out.
LGMSPD cited Government Code Section 7923.600 and Government Code Section 7922.000 as justification for the redactions. According to Town Attorney Gabrielle Whelan in an email to the Los Gatan, Section 7923.600 in particular “exempts investigatory records of any local police agency or other police agency for law enforcement purposes” from being made public through the California Public Records Act.
“For that reason, records of investigations, including the name of the individual or agency conducting the investigation, were redacted,” Whelan stated in the email. “The purpose of this exemption is to aid in the successful completion of investigations.”
Similarly, Whelan noted that Section 7922.000 “supports redaction when the public’s interest in nondisclosure (here, the privacy interests of the drivers) outweighs the public’s interest in disclosure.”
However, when the Los Gatan asked the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office for the exact same type of records, it took a much more transparent approach. The documents it sent over, in late June, were much less blacked-out.
According to the Police Services Report, “only authorized California law enforcement agencies can access ALPR data,” and the Town’s Flock Safety transparency portal lists a number of organizations that fall under this category.
