ACLU sues City of San Diego and SDPD over Flock cameras
The short version: The ACLU is suing San Diego and SDPD over Flock ALPR cameras, arguing the network amounts to unconstitutional mass surveillance disguised as crime-fighting.
Our Take
CBS 8 San Diego's report lays out the battle lines clearly: police call Flock cameras a crime-fighting tool, while the ACLU says blanketing a city with license plate readers is an invasion of privacy. This is the core tension we track every day — a technology sold as narrowly targeted at stolen cars and Amber Alerts that, in practice, logs the movements of everyone who drives past, regardless of suspicion.
Lawsuits like this matter because they force the question courts and city councils too often skip: just because a camera can scan every plate doesn't mean a department should get to keep that data, share it with other agencies, or run searches without a warrant. San Diego isn't an outlier — these cameras are proliferating in cities nationwide with little public debate about retention, audits, or who gets access to the data trail they create.
Credit to CBS 8 San Diego for covering the fight as it unfolds. If you want to see how dense this surveillance network has gotten in your own city, check out our camera map, and if you'd rather not just watch from the sidelines, our take-action page has concrete steps for pushing back at the local level.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of CBS 8 San Diego, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.