Activists call to end automated license plate reader program in Chula Vista

Our Take

Chula Vista isn't a border town by accident — it's minutes from the crossing, which is exactly why its Flock network deserves more scrutiny, not less. As CBS 8 San Diego reports, immigration and privacy advocates are pushing police to suspend the program, and the department's response has been the same one we hear in city after city: trust us, it's just for crime. That's not an answer, that's a dodge. Flock's own audit logs have repeatedly shown out-of-state and out-of-agency searches tied to immigration enforcement, and "important crimefighting tool" doesn't explain who's actually pulling data, how often, or for what.

The transparency gap is the whole story here. These systems log every plate that passes a camera, retain it, and share it across a patchwork of agencies with wildly different rules about who can query it and why. In a city sitting right on an international border, that data doesn't just track burglars — it tracks anyone's daily movement, including people activists say are now afraid to drive to work, school, or church. "It's for public safety" stops meaning much when the public can't see how the tool is actually being used.

Chula Vista is one node in a surveillance web that now blankets thousands of American communities. Check our camera map to see what's tracking your own plate, and if you want to push back locally, our take-action page has the tools to start. Credit to CBS 8 San Diego for putting this fight on camera — it's a conversation every city with Flock cameras needs to be having.