{"id":474616,"date":"2026-09-24T22:12:40","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T22:12:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/474616\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T22:12:40","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T22:12:40","slug":"its-not-illegal-for-california-police-to-misuse-flock-data-san-jose-leaders-want-to-change-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/474616\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Not Illegal for California Police to Misuse Flock Data. San Jos\u00e9 Leaders Want to Change That"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new proposal would tighten rules around unauthorized searches, but the cameras aren\u2019t going anywhere, officials said.<\/p>\n

Sep 24, 2026<\/p>\n

Updated 2:35 pm PT<\/p>\n

Alina Ta<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Protesters march carrying a papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9 camera to protest the use of Flock security cameras at the Oakland Sin Fronteras May Day march in Oakland on May 1, 2026. San Jos\u00e9 officials called for more audits of law enforcement searches of the automated license plate-reader database. \u00a0(Martin do Nascimento\/KQED)<\/p>\n

San Jos\u00e9 officials said they plan to tighten rules for accessing the city\u2019s automatic license plate reader system after a police officer was fired for misusing the city\u2019s Flock <\/a>database to track a civilian who accused his family member of domestic violence.<\/p>\n

A memo from Vice Mayor Pam Foley and Mayor Matt Mahan would petition the California state Legislature to find a way to add criminal penalties as one of the potential consequences for when an officer misuses license plate reader data, Foley told KQED on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere ought to be more ways that we can hold an officer who misuses the information accountable than just firing him. But there is not that provision or that capability right now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"San Jos\u00e9 Mayor Matt Mahan helps to install a Flock Safety brand automated license plate reader on April 23, 2024. The city and Mahan are now being sued by civil liberties groups over the technology\u2019s uses.\u00a0(Joseph Geha\/KQED)<\/p>\n

According to San Jos\u00e9 Police Chief Paul Joseph, an off-duty officer used a personal device to perform unauthorized license plate reader searches and locate a victim\u2019s vehicle. He then shared the location with the suspect, who was a relative of the officer.<\/p>\n

The officer was immediately placed on leave and later terminated following a criminal investigation, Joseph said in an email. The case was submitted to the state for a decertification investigation.<\/p>\n

\"AA Flock Safety worker holds up a new Automated License Plate Reader that was being installed in East San Jose on Tuesday, April 23, 2024.\u00a0(Joseph Geha\/KQED)<\/p>\n

Foley said leaders had previously considered banning Flock use on personal devices, but \u201cif someone wants to misuse\u201d personal information, they could still access the information on a police-issued device.<\/p>\n

While Foley emphasized the goal of the memo, which will be released on Friday, is to add more guardrails in place, she said the city does not plan to change or eliminate its contract with Flock Safety, citing public safety.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need this tool to help really solve serious crimes,\u201d Foley said. \u201cWe have to do what we can do to protect our community by being able to solve crimes as quickly as possible, and that\u2019s with the use of this technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a statement, SJPD said the new standards \u201cwill help maintain trust with our community that the data is being used as intended.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will also ensure that anyone who breaches the community\u2019s trust will face administrative and criminal consequences,\u201d the statement continued.<\/p>\n

\"\"A Flock camera monitors the intersection at McKee and North White roads in San Jos\u00e9 on April 2, 2026.\u00a0(Martin do Nascimento\/KQED)<\/p>\n

Advocates for civil liberties and immigrant protections, however, said the incident was proof that license-plate reading cameras and other surveillance tools are \u201cnot public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cIt is a blatant violation of our community\u2019s trust to learn that a sworn police officer abused our private ALPR data for their personal purposes on their personal phone for their personal contact to stalk and endanger a domestic violence survivor,\u201d said Kimberly Woo, a community organizer from SIREN, a group that has sued San Jose, along with civil liberties groups, over Flock cameras.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMass surveillance goes beyond one company, one vendor, and one \u2018bad actor,\u2019\u201d the statement continued. \u201cMass warrantless surveillance from ALPRs makes our people vulnerable to who is in power to turn our data into the wrong hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

KQED\u2019s Elize Manoukian<\/a> contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new proposal would tighten rules around unauthorized searches, but the cameras aren\u2019t going anywhere, officials said. Sep…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[88,90,89],"class_list":["post-474616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474616","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=474616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}