On Sept. 30 the ACLU Foundation and Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans filed a petition in court to force the city of San Diego to end its use of automated license plate reader technology.

They argue that a mass surveillance network violates California’s right to privacy and allows the government opportunities to trace the actions of everyday San Diegans and target marginalized individuals based on traits like socioeconomic status, race or religion.

Times of San Diego wanted to see which neighborhoods have the most cameras and the highest concentration of cameras.

To analyze the density, Times of San Diego obtained the license plate reader locations and used the community boundaries as set in all community plans citywide.

Nearly 20% of the city’s share of cameras are in two communities: Southeastern San Diego, which has 54 cameras, and Downtown, which has 42 cameras.

Moving down the list of the most cameras per community, Encanto comes in third with 34 cameras, followed by Otay Mesa 33, City Heights 27, San Ysidro and  University both with 26, Barrio Logan with 21 and Mission Valley and Mira Mesa both with 20.

Downtown is the most densely populated with cameras. 

There are 17.8 cameras per square mile in the area. Old Town comes next with nearly 14 cameras per square mile. Barrio Logan has around 13 per square mile, and Southeastern San Diego has around 11 per square mile.

Out of 52 communities in San Diego, there are 15 without city-owned ALPRs. There are many additional cameras owned and operated by third parties throughout the city.

Communities without city-owned ALPRs are: East Elliot, Torrey Hills, Los Penasquitos Canyon, Pacific Highlands Ranch, Del Mar Mesa, Tijuana River Valley, North City Future Urbanizing Area, Via de la Valle, Rancho Penasquitos, Skyline-Paradise Hills, Black Mountain Ranch, Mission Beach, Rancho Encantada, Fairbanks Ranch Country Club and San Pasqual. 

You can find your community in the chart below. You can find where city-owned ALPRs are located here.

As SDPD’s police beat boundaries break down areas like downtown into much smaller segments like Little Italy and Petco Park, the layout for which areas hold the most ALPRs looks slightly different. Out of the 125 police beats in San Diego, 80 of those have at least one ALPR.

Per police beat, the most cameras are located in University City, coming in at 23. Lincoln Park and Barrio Logan each have 21. East Village and San Ysidro have 20.

You can find the breakdown in the chart below.