Bay Area Cities Restrict License Plate Readers
Responding to privacy concerns, San Jose police are tightening access to their Flock automated license plate reader system. Meanwhile, nearby cities Saratoga and Cupertino have ended their use of the surveillance tech altogether, highlighting a growing regional debate over data privacy and automated data collection.
Flock Safety’s system does more than read plates; its "vehicle fingerprint" technology uses AI to identify cars by make, model, color, and unique features like roof racks or bumper stickers, allowing searches even without a plate number. The company’s default policy is to permanently delete all data after 30 days. However, the city of San Jose has a 365-day data retention policy, a key factor in a lawsuit filed by the ACLU and Electronic Frontier Foundation alleging the creation of an unconstitutional mass surveillance database. The move by Cupertino and Saratoga follows similar contract terminations in other Bay Area cities, including Mountain View, Santa Cruz, and Los Altos Hills. Mountain View disabled its 30 cameras after a police audit discovered federal agencies had been given access to search the data without the department's knowledge or permission. A local news investigation in Mountain View found that over 250 unapproved law enforcement agencies had performed approximately 600,000 searches of the city's license plate data over a one-year period, violating city policy. While some cities are pulling back, San Francisco is moving forward with the installation of 400 Flock cameras across 100 intersections. The expansion is funded by a $17.3 million state grant aimed at combatting organized retail theft. The central controversy involves data sharing with federal agencies like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). California state law prohibits sharing ALPR data with out-of-state or federal agencies, but several municipalities discovered their settings had been changed or that local police were running searches on behalf of federal agents. The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors' decision forces the Sheriff's Office, which provides police services to Cupertino and Saratoga, to stop using Flock as a vendor due to concerns about the company's data security and information sharing practices. Since 2022, the Sheriff's Office credits the cameras in the area with helping recover over 50 stolen vehicles and leading to 66 arrests.
