Mountain View Cancels License Plate Reader Contract
The city of Mountain View has terminated its contract for automated license plate readers, citing growing concerns about mass surveillance and data privacy. The decision reflects an increasing debate in Silicon Valley over the use of surveillance technology by public authorities.
- The decision, made by a unanimous City Council vote on February 24, 2026, immediately terminated the city's contract with Flock Safety. The 30 automated license plate reader cameras in the city had already been shut down on February 2 by Police Chief Mike Canfield. - An audit initiated by the Mountain View Police Department discovered that the city's license plate data had been accessed by out-of-state and federal law enforcement agencies, which is a violation of both city policy and California state law. - From August to November 2024, a "national lookup" feature was enabled without the city's knowledge, allowing several federal agencies to search data from the one camera installed at the time. These agencies included Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives offices and Air Force bases. - A separate issue involved a "statewide lookup" feature that was turned on, giving California law enforcement agencies access to the data without the required approval from Mountain View police. This allowed over 250 unapproved agencies to conduct approximately 600,000 searches of the city's records between December 2024 and December 2025. - While the program was active, police officials credited the system with providing leads in 87 commercial burglary cases, 65 car burglaries, and 42 residential burglaries, leading to the identification or arrest of 41 suspects. - The vendor, Flock Safety, stated that control over data sharing settings always resides with the law enforcement agency. However, Mountain View's police chief asserted that these lookup tools were never presented or discussed with the department. - This cancellation is part of a larger trend, with other cities such as Santa Cruz and Los Altos Hills also terminating their contracts with Flock Safety over similar data privacy concerns. The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors also voted to end the county's access to Flock Safety camera data.
