{"id":270933,"date":"2026-04-16T15:44:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T15:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/270933\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T15:44:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T15:44:16","slug":"federal-class-action-lawsuit-filed-over-flock-cameras-in-san-jose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/270933\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal class-action lawsuit filed over Flock cameras in San Jose"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KRON<\/a>) \u2014 Flock cameras are continuing to cause concern among drivers. In San Jose, three residents are filing a federal class-action lawsuit over the city\u2019s Flock Safety cameras on public streets.<\/p>\n

Watch the full report from KRON4\u2019s Amanda Hari in the video player above.<\/p>\n

Flock Safety has become a controversial company that uses AI to track vehicle movements.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day, San Jose is violating the rights of its residents, and this lawsuit is our effort to get that to stop,\u201d said Institute for Justice attorney Michael Soyfar.<\/p>\n

They argue the cameras violate citizens\u2019 Fourth Amendment rights, which protect individuals from unreasonable searches or seizures.<\/p>\n

Soyfar says the cameras are essentially everywhere. Flock has installed nearly 500 security cameras at San Jose intersections.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/p>\n

Photo: KRON4 News.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year, they\u2019ll snap hundreds of millions of images and convert those using AI into easily searchable data,\u201d said Soyfar. \u201cThat data can be mined for insights into people\u2019s habits, routines and associations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soyfar claims the city is sharing that data with hundreds of government agencies across the state, and he\u2019s concerned ICE could gain access to it.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not the only one. One of the three San Jose residents filing the lawsuit, Tony Tan, says he fears for his safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m especially concerned under the current federal administration because I also volunteer as a legal observer to protect immigrants\u2019 rights, and I would not want to have the Flock system here in San Jose ready for ICE and other federal agencies to abuse,\u201d said Tan.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit is asking for two things: that the city declare the cameras violate the Fourth Amendment, and a court order requiring the city to delete images unless they have a warrant.<\/p>\n

In response, San Jose City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood says the cameras have been used correctly and have helped make the city safer.<\/p>\n

The law rightly protects the use of private information collected and stored by government agencies and the City of San Jose\u2019s ALPR camera system was designed to follow the law, protect privacy rights, provide full transparency, and promote effective law enforcement,\u201d said Alcala Wood. \u201cThe City\u2019s ALPR cameras are only mounted in public areas and take pictures of vehicles as they drive on public streets and pass in view of the camera, and they have proven to be an invaluable tool in investigating and solving crimes in the City . The San Jose Police Department has robust, transparent policies in place to ensure that the information is not misused in any way, including policies that prohibit direct access to the data to private entities, out-of-state law enforcement agencies, or federal agencies. Access to our ALPR system is tightly controlled and limited to authorized SJPD personnel only. These policies are routinely reviewed and updated as was the case recently when the City amended its retention schedule reducing the length of time the ALPR data is kept from 365 days to 30 days. \u00a0 In all cases, access to ALPR data by SJPD employees is logged and auditable. Public safety in San Jos\u00e9 remains the City\u2019s top priority, and ALPR is one of many tools used responsibly and lawfully to support that mission and we are actively defending the public\u2019s interest to continue to utilize these important tools.<\/p>\n

San Jose City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE, Calif. (KRON) \u2014 Flock cameras are continuing to cause concern among drivers. In San Jose, three…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[53966,46776,117698,117699,117700,88,90,89,10168],"class_list":{"0":"post-270933","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-federal-class-action-lawsuit","9":"tag-flock-cameras","10":"tag-fourth-amendment-rights","11":"tag-michael-soyfar","12":"tag-public-streets","13":"tag-san-jose","14":"tag-san-jose-headlines","15":"tag-san-jose-news","16":"tag-security-cameras"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}