By Tihut Tamrat, Voice & Viewpoint Staff Writer
Since the Transparent and Responsible Use of Surveillance Technology (TRUST) Ordinance was unanimously approved by San Diego City Council on August 2, 2022, surveillance tools such as Smart Streetlights have been subject to public oversight, transparency requirements, and community input. However, the use of automated license plate readers ALPRs embedded in those streetlights, to capture images of vehicle license plates and track an individual’s whereabouts, has remained deeply controversial, particularly in Black and Brown communities already experiencing overpolicing.
On December 9, 2025, following nearly six hours of public testimony and council debate, the City Council voted 5 to 3 to approve the continued use of all 54 surveillance technologies deployed by the San Diego Police Department, including Smart Streetlights and ALPRs. The vote came despite the disclosure of a data breach between December 29, 2023 and January 17, 2024, during which ALPR data was accessed nearly 13,000 times by outside agencies without authorization, of which, only 1,146 personnel are currently authorized to access the ALPR system, according to a March 25, 2025 memorandum.
Councilmembers Joe LaCava District 1, Jennifer Campbell District 2, Stephen Whitburn District 3, Marni von Wilpert District 5, and Raul Campillo District 7 voted in favor. Councilmembers Henry Foster III District 4, Vivian Moreno District 8, and Sean Elo Rivera District 9 voted against the approval.
The only conditions added to the approval were staff proposed modifications to the surveillance use policy, including a requirement that (1) any contractor or subcontractor notify the City of San Diego within 24 hours of being served with an out of state or federal warrant seeking ALPR data, and a (2) change in audit frequency from quarterly to weekly.
Under California Senate Bill 34 (SB 34), passed during the 2015-2016 legislative session, law enforcement agencies, including the SDPD, are prohibited from sharing ALPR data with private entities, out-of-state law enforcement agencies, or federal agencies.
In October 2025, the Attorney General’s Office sued El Cajon for allegedly violating SB 34 by repeatedly sharing ALPR data with federal and out of state agencies. Despite outreach from the Attorney General, the El Cajon Police Department and the City of El Cajon refused to cease unlawful ALPR data sharing with out of state agencies.
In a public statement, Attorney General Bonta said, “To protect public safety, you need public trust. As the Trump Administration continues to target California’s immigrant communities, it is important that state and local law enforcement are not seen as a tool in furthering the President’s mass deportation agenda. When information about Californians leaves the state, we no longer have any say over how it is used or shared.”
The SDPD has released their 2024 Annual Surveillance report and in it includes descriptions of ALPR technology, locations ALPR technology is deployed in, audits and investigations done on ALPR technology, data breach detection or unauthorized access use and lastly, outside agencies ALPR data was shared to and the breakdown of the annual cost of the technology.
The report, however, failed to disclose the known data breach between December 29, 2023 and January 17, 2024 asserting that “there were no data breaches or unauthorized access” related to ALPR technology. The report also acknowledged that ALPR data had been shared with federal agencies including the Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the U.S. Secret Service, among many local and state police departments on multiple occasions but maintains that “this data was shared for criminal investigations unrelated to immigration.”
But what the report did disclose is costs associated with the technology, including an initial payment of $3,512,500 for installation and one year of service for 500 Smart Streetlights, a $6,800 relocation fee in June 2024, and a $1,449,602.08 authorization for 2025 contract obligations, totaling to $4,968,902.08, detracting almost $5 million away from the City’s budget for essential services like funding for libraries, SD Access 4 All programs, community equity funds, mental health grants, among others.
At a December 4, 2025 press conference hosted by the TRUST SD Coalition, labor and community leaders warned that ALPR technology is increasingly used as part of a national surveillance pipeline. Bridgette Browning, President of the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, cited an Associated Press investigation revealing that U.S. Border Patrol uses ALPR data nationwide to track so-called patterns of life.
“This is a mass surveillance pipeline,” Browning said. “A digital drag net that puts immigrant families directly in harm’s way by using predictive intelligence systems that work like a domestic spy agency. Flock has misled the public about giving federal immigration agencies access to its data, hiding a pilot program with US customs and border protection that was only paused for now, after it came to light. This is not a system we can trust and not a risk San Diego should take.”
Chris Wilson, Strategy Chief and Impact Officer at United Domestic Workers (UDW), a statewide labor union that represents more than 170,000 home care and family child care providers in 45 counties in California, added, “We need to make sure that San Diego is not creating yet another pathway to oppress our people, to endanger our people.”
During the December 9 council meeting, before the approval for the continued use of ALPR technology, the SDPD gave a powerpoint presentation summarizing the 2024 Annual Surveillance report, including ALPR technology suspect assists, but still did not acknowledge the data breach of nearly 13,000 unauthorized uses.
SDPD Chief Scott Wahl addressed the previously undisclosed data breach only after being questioned by Councilmember Henry Foster III. Wahl characterized the incident as a brief mistake.
“It was an honest miss,” Wahl said. “There was nothing nefarious there.”
That explanation was met with skepticism from community advocates. Homayra Yusufi, Senior Policy Analyst with the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans (PANA), attended the meeting and responded to SDPD testimony.
“There was a lot of finagling of language by the SDPD to make it seem like somehow this [the breach] didn’t happen,” Yusufi said. “It’s one thing to do something and say that they are going to hold themselves accountable and it’s another thing to just go deny it in public, especially when it’s already out for the public to see.”
The SDPD maintains that ALPR technology has assisted in more than 600 investigations, including the recovery of at least 20 firearms, $5.8 million in stolen property, and more than 420 arrests. Councilmember Sean Elo Rivera acknowledged the technology’s effectiveness while raising broader concerns.
“I’m not going to deny the effectiveness if you are watching everyone, all the time,” he said. “Flock is a proven bad actor who is unwilling or unable to stop their technology from being abused.”
On November 5, 2025, the San Diego Privacy Advisory Board issued formal recommendations calling for the City to cease using the Flock ALPR system, citing the data breach omission. One week later, the City Council’s Public Safety Committee unanimously voted to disregard those recommendations.
More than 60 organizations and labor unions united under the TRUST SD Coalition to oppose the continued use of ALPR technology. Hundreds of residents filled City Council chambers on December 9, many attending for the first time. With a majority in opposition and just a few in favor of the continued use of ALPR technology the majority of the room were hoping for a different outcome. One that would dismantle the 2024 contract between Ubicquia Inc. and Flock safety with the SDPD.
“We were really disappointed as to the results,” Yusufi said. “Council decided to ignore the real concerns from the community and continued to pass the harmful technology.”
On December 18, 2025, the coalition convened a public debrief to discuss next steps. According to Yusufi, frustration was widespread, but so was solidarity.
“The fight is not over,” she said. “The new annual report is going to come out in the new year so there is another bite at the apple.”
As the City prepares its 2025 Annual Surveillance Report, community members and advocates say the debate over ALPR technology is far from settled, and the question remains who is truly being protected, and who is being watched.