A small California city came into national view this week after a late-night host publicized its police department's widespread surveillance network and questioned why its cameras had recorded a hotel property and its pool "for hundreds of hours." In response, the spokesperson for the police department in Rialto, an Inland Empire city east of Los Angeles, downplayed concerns, saying the footage was only "passive monitoring."

John Oliver, host of "Last Week Tonight" on HBO, delivered a segment on police surveillance technology on Sunday. The comedian took jabs at several systems that have proliferated across the Bay Area, including Flock, the automatic license plate readers. 

Twice during the show, Oliver mentioned the city of Rialto in San Bernardino County. Its police department actively encourages new businesses to install cameras from a company called Fusus, which provides the private footage to law enforcement. So far, the department touts over 3,500 integrated cameras in the city of just over 100,000 residents.

Oliver and his team filed multiple public records requests to review every time a Rialto Police Department officer reviewed Fuses footage. The department sent the comedy show a 30,413-page document, which Oliver lampooned by printing and having an aide wheel out a cart with six boxes overflowing with paper.

Speaking to the Press-Enterprise, department spokesperson Capt. Lamont Quarker admitted that the delivery of the voluminous records was a staff error.

"While that intention was well-meaning, it was not the appropriate response," he told the San Bernardino County publication. "There was no attempt to conceal, alter or withhold data."

After reviewing the files, Oliver cherry-picked a few outlandish examples where the department accessed camera footage around Rialto, including an employee-only area at a Wienerschnitzel restaurant and inside a Chick-Fil-A. 

"Feels a little weird to me - as does the fact that they accessed cameras at the Rialto Days Inn for hundreds of hours, including the one facing the pool," Oliver said.

Rialto police responded to Oliver, explaining that the camera views were "because they were watching a whole area and scooping up all the cameras, or that they'd left a set of cameras on in the background at their office," Oliver said. "But that is just not as reassuring as I think they want it to sound."

Elaborating to the Press-Enterprise, Quarker said that "the reason we maintain this passive monitoring is straightforward: during an emergency, seconds matter." The police captain described a scenario where the department pools video footage to help respond to a 911 call.

Oliver may have landed some comedic punches this week, but the Rialto Police Department might get the last laugh. Earlier this year, Rep. Pete Aguilar earmarked over $1 million to assist the department in establishing a Real-Time Crime Center and Dispatch Center that will tap into cameras across the city, perhaps to observe more fast food kitchens or hotel splash zones.

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This article originally published at California police department caught 'passive monitoring' hotel pool.