A group of Pasadena residents are tired of feeling like they’re always being watched. And they want city officials to do something about it.
Flock cameras — attached to poles and other fixtures so authorities can capture license-plate numbers and know where specific vehicles traveled — have spread across the country in the last decade. Cities big and small have been blanketed with the recognizable black cameras armed with solar panels.
Then came the controversies.
Agencies have shared Flock data with federal immigration officials, and some cops have used the cameras to stalk ex-partners. Some residents in Southern California and across the country have called on cities to end their contracts with Flock, and officials in some communities have listened.
Activists in Pasadena hope to be the next city to ride that momentum.
Members of Pasadena Privacy have gathered more than 2,700 letters urging city leaders to cancel a contract with Flock that’s up for renewal next month.
Members like Yadi Younse believe the automated license-plate-reader cameras infringe on people’s Fourth Amendment rights.
Younse first joined Pasadena Privacy in 2020 because she worried that local governments and law enforcement agencies were implementing new technologies before they were well tested. In recent months, she’s noticed more residents getting involved with the organization or speaking at public meetings because of their concerns with the cameras sold by Flock.
“I’m not surprised by the visceral reaction, and I’m glad,” Younse said. “I’ve known all along that people do care about privacy, but it’s really awesome to see that people are now taking time out of their very, very busy lives to speak on this issue.”
Pasadena police declined to comment on the city’s future with Flock, but a spokesperson for the city said officials are “working to get the appropriate city and outside representatives to the table via a Public Safety Committee meeting in the next few months.”
Growing concerns, criticism
Over the last decade, law enforcement agencies across the country have upped their usage of Flock cameras. The license-plate readers are deployed by more than 5,000 law enforcement agencies and 1,000 businesses nationally, according to the company’s website. The cameras capture images of passing vehicles to gather identifying details such as license plates, makes and models for an agency’s searchable database.
If there are enough Flock cameras in an area, law enforcement can track someone as they drive throughout a city or region, as data captured by Flock cameras can be searched by law enforcement agencies in other cities, said Lauren Bonds, executive director of the National Police Accountability Project, which says it focuses “on ending law enforcement overreach and abuse of power.”
The camera networks have made it possible for officers to stalk ex-romantic partners. In Texas, authorities tried to find a woman in another state who, they said, got a self-administrated abortion; they said they just wanted to ensure she was OK. Last year, CalMatters reported on instances in which Los Angeles police and sheriff’s departments in Orange, Riverside and San Diego counties shared license-plate data with federal officials.
“That’s what really puts people on notice that these technologies exist and that there are these negative implications for the public,” Bonds said.
Flock argues that law enforcement agencies use its license-plate readers to gather leads and track down missing people, stolen vehicles and suspect vehicles. Alerts from Pasadena’s 61 Flock cameras helped recover 30% of vehicles that were stolen in the city last year, totaling about $700,000 in stolen property, the company said in a statement.
Flock said its cameras “capture point-in-time images of vehicles in public view” and don’t identify people, use facial recognition or gather personal information. The company said it requires a documented reason for each search of its data, doesn’t have agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, or the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and allows agencies to control if and how their data is shared.
“Agencies own and control their data, determine whether to share it through opt-in relationships, and can modify or revoke those relationships at any time,” Flock said in a statment. “Flock does not share data on behalf of customers and never sells customer data.
“Flock has no contracts with ICE or any Department of Homeland Security subagency,” it said. “Flock also offers immigration search filters that agencies can enable to block searches tied to civil immigration enforcement, and those filters are automatically applied where required by law.”
With growing public scrutiny, Los Angeles police ended their agreetment for Flock license-plate readers, and other California cities, including South Pasadena, El Cerrito and Mountain View, have done the same.
Though in Costa Mesa, where a former officer was sentenced to three years probation in April for using the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System database to allegedly stalk his wife, an ex girlfriend and her new boyfriend, the City Council voted 6-1 to renew a Flock contract last month.
To address privacy concerns, the council renegotiated Costa Mesa’s contract to shorten the data-retention period from one year to 45 days. (A state bill authored by Riverside Democratic Sen. Sabrina Cervantes aims to limit the retention of such license-plate data to 30 days in many cases.)
Ahead of an Aug. 11 public forum to discuss concerns related to the license-plate readers, Monterey Park highlighted “success stories,” writing that the cameras helped identify and track a suspect vehicle following the 2023 Star Ballroom mass shooting that killed 11 people, find a suspect vehicle hours after the killing of an off-duty officer in Downey in 2022, and track down an elderly man with dementia who was reported missing; the cameras found his vehicle in Riverside County and tracked his whereabouts until officers found him in Long Beach.
‘I wouldn’t feel comfortable pursuing this (now)’
Pasadena Councilmember Tyron Hampton, also a member of the city’s Public Safety Committee, said he believes the city should remove its network of Flock cameras and consider other automated-license-plate readers that he hopes would better protect the community’s privacy.
Technology, he said, can help police solve cases. He cited the arrest of a couple several years after the shooting death of a 13-year-old boy in Pasadena; police used enhanced surveillance video to find a partial license plate on a suspect vehicle.
“We have world class events here, and Pasadena is going to continue to be a safe environment,” Hampton said, “and we’re going to continue to use technology in the safest way that we can.”
In cities that have ended their Flock agreements, such as Denver and Syracuse, New York, officials later inked contracts with Axon to supply license-plate readers. But no matter the company, the same privacy concerns arise, said Rin Alajaji, associate director of state affairs for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit centering on digital privacy and free speech.
“It’s been something that we’ve seen regardless of the vendor,” Alajaji said. “There is misuse when governments and police departments have such a powerful system that they can use at any moment that they’d like to.”
Pasadena Privacy members care about public safety, Younse said, but they also worry the devices threaten their privacy and have too long a history of misuse to be trusted. For them to be used properly, Younse said she believes the city would need to have guardrails against misconduct, public discussions before new technology is purchased, and a position similar to a chief privacy officer to hold other officials accountable.
Despite local policies and California laws meant to prevent federal officials from accessing police department data, Pasadena Vice Mayor Jess Rivas said she worries the Trump administration could find ways to use license-plate data for immigration enforcement or to keep tabs on protesters.
“I just don’t trust the federal government right now,” said Rivas, who also chairs the Public Safety Committee. “I wouldn’t feel comfortable pursuing this for quite a long time.”
