San Diego approves continued license plate reader use
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The San Diego Police Department will keep monitoring city streets with Flock Safety's automated license plate reader (ALPR) camera system.
Why it matters: Police say the controversial technology helps the understaffed department investigate and solve crimes, but critics argue it builds a surveillance network that raises concerns about privacy, security and data misuse.
Driving the news: The City Council voted Tuesday night to allow police to continue using 54 technologies, including Flock and smart street lights, after hearing from more than 100 public speakers during an hours-long meeting in a packed city hall.
- The Flock system costs about $2 million annually to run, and council agreed to reconsider funding it based on a required annual review of the technology.
- The Privacy Advisory Board, which was created in 2023 to review city surveillance technology, recommended last month that the police department stop using the readers unless it implements dozens of new rules and recommendations limiting data collection and increasing transparency and oversight.
- The police department agreed to accept or consider most of those recommendations. Chief Scott Wahl said at the meeting that they've expanded auditing, improved public reporting and tightened data-sharing rules.
Zoom in: San Diego police have been using the 500 cameras installed in streetlights around the city to assist with hundreds of investigations since 2024, including for attempted kidnappings, hate crimes, car thefts, homicides and burglaries.
- The ALPR system captures images of cars, license plate information, time and location data, but does not identify the drivers or passengers, according to SDPD.
- The surveillance data is currently stored and accessible for 30 days, and has been shared with federal agencies but not used for immigration enforcement, per the department.
By the numbers: SDPD says it has used Flock technology in about 600 investigations, recovering $6 million in stolen property and making more than 400 arrests, including six homicide suspects.
- The ALPR system has contributed to a more than 20% drop in motor vehicle theft from 2023 to 2024, per SDPD.
Friction point: Some council members and Trust SD, a coalition of 60 nonprofit organizations, want the system shut down, citing an error within the Flock program that allowed other agencies in California to search San Diego's data, among other issues.
- Some local residents said at the meeting that surveillance does not make people feel safer, and expressed concerns about the technology being used to target activists, immigrants and Black and Latino communities.
Between the lines: California law prohibits local law enforcement agencies and companies like Flock from sharing surveillance data with federal and out-of-state agencies. Agencies within the state can share with each other.
- San Diego's surveillance ordinance is even stricter, limiting ALPR data access to investigations of specific crimes by request, per the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The big picture: More than 6,000 agencies in cities nationwide use Flock's license plate reader system, including in Chula Vista, El Cajon, La Mesa, National City and Oceanside.
- Yes, but: Several cities have recently ditched Flock's program following public backlash over privacy and data sharing concerns.