Data breach drives fears as advocates, councilmen urge end to use of police camera system

Councilmembers Sean Elo-Rivera and Henry Foster III joined community advocates Thursday to urge San Diego to halt its use of Flock automated license plate readers.

Over 50 advocates gathered at Civic Center Plaza chanting “Get the Flock out!” and carrying signs saying “Broken trust, needs repair.”

The call comes ahead of Tuesday’s city council meeting, where members will consider whether the San Diego Police Department should continue using Flock’s ALPR system.

Advocates say a data breach involving unauthorized searches of San Diegans’ data — along with documented abuses in other states — shows the technology poses serious privacy risks. Other officials, however, say the tool is essential for solving crimes, recovering stolen vehicles and keeping the city safe.

The TRUST SD coalition – that stands for Transparent and Responsible Use of Surveillance Technology San Diego – held a news conference Thursday to call attention to Flock’s issues. The data breach resulted in entities outside San Diego making thousands of searches of locals’ travel information; the reason for those searches remains unknown. 

Advocates flagged issues with Flock across the nation, including a police chief in Georgia who was recently charged with using the Atlanta company’s readers to stalk and harass people. Flock has disputed some of the other claims against them as misleading. 

Foster said that when other cities and states are experiencing issues it suggests that it is “not a one-time mistake, it reflects a deeper pattern.” He added, “We just need to make sure that who we are doing business with is a responsible party.”

Elo-Rivera said that Flock’s “pattern of abuse” makes the firm impossible to trust. Advocates fear that federal agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security, Border Patrol and ICE will access the data to fulfill the Trump administration’s deportation agenda. 

“The number of people who are being given legitimate reason to fear the federal government is rising on a daily basis,” said Elo-Rivera. 

Although California law mostly forbids ALPR data from being shared with federal agents, a recent lawsuit in El Cajon over a breach of this law has fueled fears about its use. Flock maintains that data sharing with federal agencies is the decision of local law enforcement. 

Patricia Mondragon of Alliance San Diego fears use of the technology will erode trust in local law enforcement. “When people are afraid to call for help, we are all less safe,” she said. 

Branden Sigua of the ACLU chapter that serves San Diego and Imperial counties, expressed concern that the surveillance technology would be used to monitor people attending protests and union meetings.

“The dystopian future George Orwell envisioned in 1984 is our dystopian present,” he said. 

ALPR technology has assisted local law enforcement in finding stolen vehicles as well as solving homicide, robbery and assault cases. San Diego police said that since automated license plate reader technology was adopted in 2024, it has assisted with 600 investigations, including the recovery of $5.8 million in stolen property and 440 stolen vehicles. 

In a statement, Councilmember Raul Campillo said that APLR technology is critical in keeping San Diego safe. 

“The thought of doing away with ALPRs is short-sighted and goes against the city’s mission to protect residents and visitors alike. We must not allow fear to harm already worried communities by making them less safe,” he said. 

The coalition is united on ending the use of Flock’s ALPR technology, but it was unclear if advocates agreed on whether alternative technology would be acceptable.

Seth Hall of TRUST SD said that instead of the “best of the best” technology, the city, with Flock, selected the “worst of the worst” technology. 

“That the city has people within it that are fighting to continue to use the worst of the worst should be unacceptable,” Hall said. “The community rightly expects that if we’re going to use dangerous technologies like this, that we’re going to use the best of the best — the safest.”

Earlier last month, the city’s Privacy Advisory Board issued a formal recommendation that San Diego stop using the Flock system, and identified 31 policy and product changes needed to operate the technology with professionalism.

The following week, the council’s Public Safety Committee, which includes Campillo, unanimously voted to approve the continued use of Flock technology without any changes to the policies or product.