Today’s newsletter is presented by Kaiser Permanente.
Good morning, San Diego ☀️
Here’s what we have for you today:
- It’s Friday the 13th — don’t be afraid! Instead, get in on Flash Tattoo deals across San Diego, and then show off your new ink (real or temporary) to get a free entree at Chipotle.
- San Diego State men’s soccer has a chance to make its first trip to the NCAA Division I men’s soccer tournament in a decade. But they have a big hurdle to clear to get there.
- Be on the lookout for this man in Mission Beach. He’s believed to have harmed a child.
Jennifer Vigil
News editor
Top story
After Flock came to Hillcrest, hate crimes dropped. The community is now divided on whether ALPRs should stay.
It’s clear that automatic license plate readers can be used for good. Law enforcement points to a significant number of suspects they’ve taken into custody due to the technology. But a growing body of evidence suggests it also can be used for ill, as privacy advocates have long feared.
No doubt some of those advocates make their homes in Hillcrest, the San Diego community most associated with members of the LGBT community.
Yet many members of the community also can attest to the difference ALPRs have made regarding hate crimes.
From 2016 until last year, our Drew Sitton writes, Hillcrest had the highest number of hate crimes in the city. What changed? In part, it was the presence of Flock, the vendor the city works with to provide ALPR devices and services.
A 2024 pellet gun shooting in Hillcrest left a man with permanent damage to one eye, and no arrests followed. Four months later, after the city installed devices at 14 locations around the community, shooters again directed pellet-fun fire in Hillcrest. This time, the police arrested four young men.
The technology certainly, though, has appeared to rush ahead of policies to regulate it, much less contain it. Times of San Diego documented how La Mesa’s cameras are constantly searched on the Flock network, though the suburb’s officers rarely are the ones doing the scanning. And Voice of San Diego, in a Thursday story, reported that San Diego police officers conducting an internal investigation used the cameras to surveil one of their own – and a crime victim he was supposed to be aiding.
Yet in Hillcrest, as one well-connected activist fears, removing the cameras – the San Diego City Council appears poised to do so – could be “a greenlight for all these haters” to return.
Flock, in some circles, has become a tech bogeyman, yet, as Drew quotes San Diego’s police chief, it also “helps protect everybody.”
What the situation requires is a nuanced conversation. Whether the council is capable of it? We’ll soon see.
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Stories you should know about
🚧 San Diego streetlight repairs now take 340 days on average, city audit finds: City data analyzed by Times of San Diego show 14,306 streetlight repair requests citywide. Downtown San Diego has the highest number of requests, with 2,525, followed by Peninsula neighborhoods with 1,036, Pacific Beach with 841 and Clairemont Mesa with 597.
⚾️ Mason Miller wins first NL Reliever of the Year Award in a season that tested him off the field: Miller was named the first winner of the National League Reliever of the Year Award by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, receiving all 30 first-place votes. He earned it by having a hand in 47% of the Padres’ 91 victories.
🐴 San Diego Weekend Guide, Thanksgiving countdown – Nov. 13-15: Catch shows galore, featuring anime, horses, film, dance and more. And there’s holiday shopping too.
What else we’re reading
🔥 Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility locked down its facility during a heat wave when temperatures inside the building broke 90 degrees, and several incarcerated people say they were denied access to ice water and cooler areas. (KPBS)
🐘 A male African savanna elephant named Nipho, who was born at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, died this week after a brief illness. (Union-Tribune)
Times of San Diego thanks our corporate sponsors. Find out more about sponsorships and advertising opportunities here.
Locals Only
🧺 We asked you: What’s the best picnic spot in the city of San Diego? Here’s what San Diegans had to say:
🌳 Kate Sessions Park in Pacific Beach from Dennis T.
😱 We endured the Great Outlook Outage of 2026! To the rest of you who sent in responses, we’re sorry, but we weren’t able to receive them in our inbox.