Today’s newsletter is presented by MTS.
Good morning, San Diego ☀️
Here’s what we have for you today:
- Thank goodness, the weather around town will be a little cooler all week.
- The Central Library downtown is about to open its “Remember Us the Holocaust” exhibit, featuring survivor testimonials and Holocaust-era artifacts.
- Authorities are seeking anyone who may have come into contact with the rideshare driver arrested for allegedly assaulting a passenger.
Tessa Balc
Audience engagement producer
Top story
SDPD now discloses why officers search Flock license plate readers. Nearly 4,000 times, the reason was ‘other.’
Flock automated license plate readers are not exactly popular right now.
There’s been significant public pushback to San Diego’s vast network of cameras, and on a national scale apprehension around widespread surveillance tech has ratcheted up. Suddenly, that skepticism — or outright opposition — has even become a rare point of bipartisan agreement.
But at the start of this year, the San Diego Police Department began requiring officers to disclose their reasons for searching a license plate whenever they queried the Flock network. An SDPD spokesperson told us the department and Flock together implemented the disclosure to improve transparency and accountability.
When police officers enter a search, they have to put in the reason they are looking for that license plate before it will show them results. An SDPD spokesperson said certain words like “reproductive care” or “immigration” will shut the system down.
Of the 114,692 times officers searched automatic license plate readers since the start of the year, 19,210 of those searches were for stolen vehicles, 17,141 were for arrest warrants and 13,221 were for gunfire or weapons offenses, according to the records, obtained and analyzed by Times of San Diego.
But not every disclosure increases transparency.
In nearly 4,000 queries made between January 2026 and Aug. 1, 2026, officers listed the reason for their search as “other.” The officer making the search is required to fill out a more detailed explanation for “other” — but that entry is not included in the department’s public records, because a spokesperson said they could contain investigative details.
Times of San Diego thanks our corporate sponsors. Find out more about sponsorships and advertising opportunities here.
Stories you should know about
⚖️ Newsom signs law to let these Californians get out of jury duty — for good: Assembly Bill 1359 enables seniors to request a permanent exemption by attesting that they have an impairment that renders them incapable of performing jury service.
🎓 $400,000 per bed? Why it costs so much to build affordable student housing in California: At UCSD, for example, a 1,423-bed dorm that opened in 2024 cost $260,000 per bed to build.
🏢 Opinion: Midway Rising includes a plan for affordable housing, but there’s no guarantee that it will satisfy state housing incentives.
Times of San Diego thanks our corporate sponsors. Find out more about sponsorships and advertising opportunities here.
Step back in time…
Can you guess which San Diego neighborhood this bank was located in? Reply first to get a shoutout in tomorrow’s newsletter!
