By Tihut Tamrat, Voice & Viewpoint Staff Writer 

Thursday, December 4th, at 10 am, the Trust SD Coalition, originally established in response to the widespread and secretive use of Smart Streetlights countywide, and 63 community and labor organizations called on Mayor Gloria and City Council to “Restore TRUST, Remove FLOCK!”, as signs boldly proclaimed across the Civic Center plaza. Flock Safety, an American manufacturer and operator of security hardware and software, particularly automated license plate recognition, video surveillance, and gunfire locator systems, works in conjunction with Law Enforcement to track vehicle movements or identify stolen or suspect cars. If not used in an investigation, the data is required by a decade-old California law, Senate Bill 34, to bar local agencies from sharing ALPR data with federal or out-of-state entities, and is required to be deleted after 30 days, according to the San Diego Police Department. 

But in February 2025, San Diego city staff formally submitted an Annual Surveillance Report as required, but in that report, they had improperly concealed the existence of a January 2024 data breach, which resulted in thousands of searches of San Diegans’ travel information by searchers outside San Diego, directly violating Senate Bill 34.  

According to a press release sent out on December 3rd, 2025 by Seth Hall, co-founder of the community group, San Diego Privacy, and Ramla Sahid, Executive Director of the Partnership of Advanced New Americans (PANA), Flock’s ALPR system takes data about San Diegans’ routine travels and “stores them in an insecure manner that leaves our data open to breach and misuse, speed[ing] the hands of those who would unjustly detain, incarcerate, or deport our communities.” All 63 organizations, along with the SD Trust Coalition, signed a letter addressed to City Councilmembers, the Mayor, and the City Attorney stating that the City of San Diego has failed to maintain control of the Flock ALPR system since its installation, and are demanding that the City eliminate its use of the Flock ALPR system. 

Earlier this summer, The San Diego Voice and Viewpoint published an investigative report on the controversial use of surveillance tools like automated license plate readers (ALPRs) to track San Diegans whereabouts. 

City Council will deliberate whether or not to approve a resolution authorizing the continued use of all 54 surveillance technologies, including ALPRs used by SDPD, tomorrow, December 9th, at 2 pm. 

PHOTOS: Tihut Tamrat/ Voice & Viewpoint PHOTOS: Tihut Tamrat/ Voice & Viewpoint PHOTOS: Tihut Tamrat/ Voice & Viewpoint

Stay tuned for more coverage on this story at www.sdvoice.info. 

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