San Diego could become the largest city to suspend the use of all its automated license plate readers. On Monday, the city council could vote to turn off all 505 of its cameras.
Over the last few months, public outcry against the technology, in particular the company Flock Safety, swept the nation and influenced midterm elections. It’s caused cities across the country to ditch Flock.
In July, the Los Angeles Police Department announced they would no longer be working with Flock Safety over concerns about the company’s data use, days before the city’s contract with the company was set to expire. Flock, one of a handful of Los Angeles’ ALPR vendors, operated 138 cameras in Los Angeles.
Months later, the Los Angeles City Council approved a pilot program with Axon Enterprise to install and operate new ALPR cameras across the city for three months at no charge.
The question before San Diego on Monday isn’t about the vendor but about the technology itself. While the city council voted against the wishes of four councilmembers in June to continue paying $2 million for the Flock contract in the face of budget cuts to arts and libraries, dynamics have changed substantially. Enough to suspend the technology for the time being.
On Thursday, Councilmember Raul Campillo publicly rescinded his support for the technology.
Campillo’s reversal came after he learned that the San Diego Police Department used ALPRs to track a domestic violence victim during an internal affairs investigation where they suspected an officer of having a sexual encounter with her, first reported by Voice of San Diego.
“Until these serious concerns are fully addressed and the safeguards necessary to prevent further misuse are demonstrated, I am withdrawing my support, and I am demanding that the program be immediately suspended and an audit be conducted of its use within our Police Department to understand the extent to which it has been misused,” Campillo said in a statement.
A month ago, Councilmember Stephen Whitburn publicly withdrew his support citing fears about the Trump Administration’s immigration crackdown tactics.
With Whitburn and Campillo’s reversals, there are now six council members ready to pump the brakes on ALPRs. That would be enough to override a veto from Mayor Todd Gloria, who has been a staunch supporter of the technology. But Friday, Mayor Gloria’s politics flipped. He said he will not veto a council decision.
If the council decides to not authorize an updated ALPR use policy Monday, this would require the city to shut off all ALPR cameras.
But the council’s decision would not end San Diego’s contract with Flock Safety. Once the cameras are shut off, it would primarily be the Mayor’s decision to cancel the contract.
It’s not clear from the resolution whether this vote would stop officers from searching Flock’s database for hits from cameras not owned by the City of San Diego.
The 2023 contract with Ubicquia, which names Flock as a subcontractor, expires in 2028, with a nearly $12 million agreement. A clause in the contract allows the city to terminate the contract at any point if the city does not approve the use of the technology.
A council committee recently voted to seek a city ordinance that would cancel the contract following revelations of a false ALPR hit reported by Times of San Diego, involving a man who spent months in jail for a crime he did not commit and was miles away from.
More recently Times of San Diego reported another instance of a potential false ALPR hit on a stolen car that led to an SDPD officer shooting a 19-year-old passenger in the vehicle.
Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera has been a longstanding opponent of this technology. He referred to these two instances as liabilities for the city, but also something that erodes a sense of safety and trust with San Diegans.
“You’ve got the $2 million for the license plate readers, plus the risk it exposes us to in a department that seems to have multiple multimillion-dollar lawsuits on an annual basis. That’s super concerning to me. And then there’s— and this is related to the surveillance issue, but I think it’s also worth naming it as a standalone— trust in general,” he said.
“And so all of this comes back to safety and me truly believing and knowing, based on the data from San Diego, that San Diego can be safe without license plate readers.”
The council’s vote is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 16.
