San Diego Council Questions Police on Flock Cameras

In the video above, San Diego Councilmember Henry Foster III questions the city’s police chief about the department’s use of Flock Safety automated license plate reader cameras. It’s a short clip, but it points to a much bigger conversation happening in city halls across the country: who gets to decide how these cameras are used, and who holds police accountable once they’re installed.

Why a Few Minutes of Questioning Matters

Automated license plate readers quietly photograph every passing vehicle, logging plate numbers, timestamps, and location data regardless of whether the driver is suspected of anything. That data often sits in a searchable database for weeks or months, and in many cities it can be shared across agencies or even states. When an elected official asks a police chief direct questions about how a system like this is used, it’s one of the only public moments where residents get a window into policies that otherwise operate behind closed doors.

The Core Accountability Questions

Across the country, the same basic questions keep surfacing. How long is license plate data stored? Who can access it, and does that include outside agencies or federal immigration authorities? Is there an audit log showing every search, and is it ever reviewed? Are there consequences when a camera is misused to track an ex-partner, a journalist, or a political rival? These aren’t hypothetical concerns; they are the exact oversight gaps that have led to controversy in city after city once ALPR networks expand past a handful of cameras.

Why Everyday People Should Pay Attention

Most drivers never opted into having their daily movements logged by a private company’s camera network. Flock Safety cameras are now common fixtures on residential streets, not just highways, which means they capture trips to church, the doctor, a protest, or a friend’s house. Without strong local policy and real oversight, that data can be queried far more broadly than most residents assume.

What You Can Do

If you live in San Diego or anywhere with Flock cameras nearby, the exchange in this video is worth watching in full. Then look at what your own city council has approved, or hasn’t. You can check our interactive map to see documented camera locations near you, read our plain-language explainer on how ALPR systems work, and visit our take action page for concrete steps, like requesting your local police department’s ALPR policy and showing up when it’s on a council agenda. Public questioning, like what’s shown above, is one of the few checks residents have.