Urgent Action Required - Tuesday December 9, 2025
San Diego to vote on Automatic License Plate Readers Tues, Dec 9 at 2:00p.m.
The name of these cameras has not escaped our attention. FLOCK. Are we the sheep they are trying to herd??
They are laughing in our faces as they spend our money.
Please see this video about the FLOCK Cameras:
Tuesday December 9th at 2:00 p.m. San Diego city council will vote to reauthorize Flock Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs) – and 53 other surveillance technologies. Item 331 on the Agenda https://sandiego.hylandcloud.com/211agendaonlinecouncil/Meetings/ViewMeeting?id=6781&doctype=1&site=council You can view Tuesday’s city council meeting live online, write an e-comment, phone in a comment live or Zoom, or attend in person to watch or speak.
You’ll probably be given only one minute to speak due to the number of speakers this item will probably garner. Instructions are given on the Agenda above. For those that don’t know, here’s some info on this tech I’ve been able to find through public documents and Google/Brave searches. There’s more, but this is enough.
San Diego has over 500 Flock brand ALPRs at intersections throughout the city. A search says over 8,000 cities across the U.S. including Escondido, Coronado, La Mesa, El Cajon and Chula Vista also use this tech. It reads every vehicle that goes through 24/7/365 and keeps a record for the previous 30 days. SDPD is short over 200 officers. SDPD has said this tech helps them solve crimes, however, I would rather the city take the $4 million dollars they have spent the last 2 years on ALPR tech and use it to hire the officers they need. Per Google, San Diego has paid $10 million this past year in police overtime due to staffing shortages.
At least eight cities have cancelled or paused their contracts with Flock for various issues and I hope San Diego will do the same. The short of it (references below) is this tech is too invasive and gathers the patterns of innocent people’s lives whenever they enter an intersection with an ALPR.
In other cities, errors have been made and innocent people have been frighteningly taken from their cars at gunpoint. This was due to human error entering the plate number for a “hot list”, or the ALPR actually misread part of the plate number. Lastly, I don’t think Flock is a good partner to be in control of such powerful technology.
Flock has allowed Customs & Border Patrol to access city’s/cities’ (?) data, without the cities’ knowledge, and they are rolling out more invasive tech – their Nova program and automated drone systems.
FLOCK is creating a self serve surveillance dragnet open to government agencies and it is a free for all tracking system.
Do a Google search on cities that have paused or cancelled Flock ALPRs and reading some of the documents attached to this item. Click on Item 331description of the Agenda and the docs will appear on the right-side margin. I’ve only scratched the surface.
What you might like to know: San Diego has 520 + ALPR’s throughout the city. You can find their locations here https://webmaps.sandiego.gov/portal/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=a70a4dc00702448da5948992b144a98f Every vehicle that passes through an intersection with this technology has their rear license plate scanned. They record plate number, date, time, location and notable vehicle features which could include damage or stickers. The information is kept for 30 days and then deleted if not tied to an investigation. Pages 5 & 6 of the Annual Surveillance Report PowerPoint presentation https://sandiego.hylandcloud.com/211agendaonlinecouncil/Documents/ViewDocument/ITEM%20331%20-%202024%20Annual%20Report_TRUST%20Ordinance_CC.12.9.25.pptx.pdf?meetingId=6781&documentType=Agenda&itemId=253238&publishId=1044680&isSection=false
That means if your daily driving routine passes a number of these scanners, then a pattern of your life has been recorded for the last 30 days. The city says when you’re out in public, you have no expectation of privacy.
To me this feels like surveillance of innocent people because if our routines pass these scanners, then our habits, times and locations of the last 30 days have been recorded. It’s all there waiting for someone to input our plate number. How many citizens, that haven’t committed any crimes, have their daily habits of the last 30 days on file with SDPD? This Norfolk, Virginia man sued his city and found they had 500 hits of his vehicle in the previous four months.
His co-plaintiff had her car scanned 849 times. Norfolk has 176 scanners compared to San Diego’s 500+ scanners collecting data 24/7/365. https://www.news18.com/viral/over-500-licence-plate-scans-in-4-months-virginia-man-sues-city-over-excessive-surveillance-aa-ws-l-9584545.html Page 8 of the Annual Surveillance PowerPoint says SDPD will not share data with Federal or out of state agencies, yet they will when a “legitimate investigative need existed” pg 58, 62-63 of their Annual Surveillance Rpt (93 pgs long, I only read the section on ALPRs) https://sandiego.hylandcloud.com/211agendaonlinecouncil/Documents/ViewDocument/Annual%20Surveillance%20Report%202024.pdf.pdf?meetingId=6781&documentType=Agenda&itemId=253238&publishId=1044658&isSection=false
To list a few: DEA, FBI, Homeland Security, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and CBP for criminal investigations SDPD said was unrelated to immigration. Although SDPD has rules about sharing, my concern is Flock has shared data with CBP without cities’ knowledge. Evanston Il is an example. Flock reinstalled the ALPRs in Evanston without the city’s knowledge after Evanston told Flock to take them down because Flock had shared data with CBP. That city had to issue a cease and desist. When a local paper looked into Flock’s portal, 439,542 vehicles had been tracked in the 30 days previous – and that’s with only 19 readers.
How many vehicles from the last 30 days does SDPD have on file with 500+ ALPRs ? https://evanstonroundtable.com/2025/09/24/flock-safety-reinstalls-evanston-cameras/ Errors have been made and innocent people taken from their cars at gunpoint: Denver woman falsely accused. Youtube short https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZNKQoOzFm5g and the news article relating the same https://coloradosun.com/2025/10/28/flock-camera-police-colorado-columbine-valley/ This article from Syracuse NY list five times Flock made errors. People were wrongly stopped, held at gunpoint and even attacked by a police dog. Go to “LPR and database errors have dire Consequences” in this article https://centralcurrent.org/a-study-found-syracuses-new-license-plate-readers-make-frequent-mistakes-councilors-didnt-know-before-approving-them/ .
Youtube A news video highlighting two incidences where families were wrongly pulled over at gunpoint because of faulty ALPR data. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_Kw7KvoL6Q ALPRs are fraught with issues of abuse, errors and tracking of innocent citizens. TELL city council to cancel their contract with Flock and use to stop charging trash can fees.
FLOCK cameras are illegal under the California constitution. The California constitution gives us the right to privacy beyond what is given in the federal constitution and these cameras violate this right to privacy.
Flock cameras automatically scan every license plate that passes, even when no crime is suspected.
Courts have repeatedly said that long-term tracking of a person’s movements can constitute a “search” because it reveals private, intimate details of life
Just because a camera is in a public place a mass surveillance dragnet is not constitutional under the Federal constitution or the state constitution.
The FLOCK cameras are all over the county not just the City.
See Here:
https://pra.sandiegocounty.gov/requests/25-6348
Here’s a website where real people like you and I who observe their locations list them: https://deflock.me/. Put your zip code in to find ones near you.
Also of note, is that many of these camera’s don’t look like cameras and are not installed at the intersection. They are installed in front of buildings near the intersections.
San Diegans frustrated because now they have the new trash bins AND the old ones
In the latest wrinkle in the San Diego trash pickup saga, some residents are saying the city of San Diego dropped off the new black bins but never took away the old ones.
San Diegans frustrated because now they have the new trash bins AND the old ones
San Diego introducing residential parking permit program
People who live near paid parking zones in some neighborhoods now have to purchase $150 parking permits to avoid paying meters on Sundays.
More Trickery & Deceit
This is just the beginning of normalizing the rfid chips in order to track, surveil, monitor and fine you. You are seen as a trackable revenue slave. THE PEOPLE DO NOT CONSENT
News 10: Teams of ‘lid lifters’ begin enforcement of City of San Diego trash rules