San Diego's Budget and Government Efficiency Committee voted on Wednesday, October 21, to rescind the city's approval for automated licence plate reader (ALPR) technology and end the city's contract for Flock cameras, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported via GovTech. All four committee members — Kent Lee, Sean Elo-Rivera, Henry Foster III and Vivian Moreno — voted to stop using the readers.
Lee, who voted for the technology last year, said community fears that the data the cameras collect could be turned against residents drove his change. 'I recognize that it is time to act,' Lee said. 'It's time for us to prioritize the protection of civil rights and liberties for our residents. It's time to prioritize our limited public dollars to protect the services and the everyday public safety needs that our communities have shared.' Foster, who chairs the committee and brought the item forward, said his conversations with community members 'typically end with tears' and are 'truly from a place of fear' about being mass surveilled.
The four committee votes, together with Councilmember Stephen Whitburn's recent announcement that he is withdrawing his support for the readers, would give opponents a majority on the full council, NBC 7 San Diego reported. The question must still come before the full council, expected before the end of the year under the city's 2023 surveillance ordinance, which requires an annual review of surveillance technology. Because Mayor Todd Gloria supports keeping the cameras, removing them over his veto would take a 6-3 council vote.
Gloria said after the vote that the city has 'established the strongest privacy protections and public oversight,' including reviews and audits, and urged the full council to keep the readers: 'Elected leaders shouldn't be making life easier for criminals. We should be making it easier for our constituents.' Police Chief Scott Wahl said removing the cameras would make it harder to solve crimes: 'We don't have to guess whether ALPR helps solve crimes. We've seen it work in more than 900 cases, from stolen vehicles and kidnappings to murders.' The cameras record plate number, make, model, colour and markings such as bumper stickers for every vehicle in view and store it in a searchable database.
Flock's senior spokesperson Trevor Chandler told reporters on Tuesday that San Diego police had implemented 'a national gold standard in transparency and oversight' and accused politicians of putting 'election year politics over effective policy.' The committee vote came as the city fights a lawsuit from the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans, a refugee-advocacy group, alleging the cameras and database invade privacy rights under the state constitution, and a separate federal lawsuit from a man who alleges he was wrongfully jailed for a month after police using ALPRs targeted the wrong vehicle, the Union-Tribune reported. About four dozen people spoke at Wednesday's meeting, nearly all against the readers.
Plate readers log where every passing car goes — work, school, shops and places of worship. With federal immigration enforcement expanding, San Diego's debate is about whether data collected for stolen-car and crime investigations could expose ordinary residents, including immigrant and Punjabi diaspora families, to surveillance they never consented to. The full council's vote, due before the end of the year, will decide whether the cameras stay or go.
What is solid
- The budget committee voted 4-0 on October 21 to rescind approval for Flock ALPR use and end the contract, with Lee, Elo-Rivera, Foster and Moreno voting to stop the readers — reported by the Union-Tribune via GovTech and by NBC 7 San Diego.
- The full council has not yet decided; a vote is expected before the end of the year, and overriding a veto by Mayor Gloria, who supports the cameras, would require 6-3.
What is only claimed
- Whether the cameras are a proven crime-solving tool with strong privacy safeguards, as Chief Wahl, Mayor Gloria and Flock say, or a mass-surveillance risk to civil rights, as the committee majority and community speakers say, is the central dispute and remains unresolved.
- Whether plate data has been or could be used for federal immigration enforcement in San Diego is alleged by critics and in lawsuits; police say the department follows strict city rules and keeps its data inaccessible to other agencies.