(The Center Square) – San Francisco\u2019s contract with the automated license plate reader company Flock Safety is set to end in February as public scrutiny of the technology has caused several Bay Area cities to cancel contracts.<\/p>\n
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie recently announced new guardrails for the artificial intelligence-based technology but has maintained praise for the multi-million dollar system, along with other political leaders in the city, for its crime-fighting capabilities. Local officials have reported a significant decrease in crime.<\/p>\n
But opponents expressed privacy concerns ahead of the contract renewal deadline, citing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement access and a string of national and local abuses of the technology by police officers.<\/p>\n
Flock Safety did not respond to an interview request from The Center Square for this story.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have hundreds of thousands of cameras now across the country, and law enforcement is seemingly able to search them with very little restraint,\u201d said Saira Hussain, senior attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis mass surveillance technology has crept up on us in some ways, [but] the public outcry is here now, and it\u2019s very loud \u2013 and very hard for lawmakers and police to ignore,” Hussain told The Center Square.<\/p>\n
Automated license plate readers are cameras mounted to streetlights, poles or overpasses. They automatically take photos of license plates that pass their view. Along with the location, date, time and other information about the vehicle, the pictures are saved to a vast online database that can track drivers and their vehicles.<\/p>\n
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A Flock Safety automated license plate reader camera is pictured. Photo: Tony Webster \/ Flickr<\/a> \/ CC BY 2.0<\/a> \/ Cropped from Original<\/p>\n The technology burst into the national conversation in recent months. An October poll<\/a> by Noble Predictive Insights for The Center Square found 25% of registered voters thought ALPRs were too risky to use, and 39% said the technology should only be used in serious crimes or emergencies. NPI said 29% supported the technology\u2019s more general use.<\/p>\n In June, Flock reported a network of over 120,000<\/a> cameras across 49 states. DeFlock, a crowdsourced database opposed to the technology, reported over 144,000<\/a> ALPRs across the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n Fears of mass surveillance have driven national concern about the tech, with ALPRs able to be shared between users, across states and police departments.<\/p>\n \u201cMany people\u2019s movements are being tracked day in and day out as they are living and working, as they are moving from their house to their school to a place of worship, and where they may be seeking sensitive services,\u201d said Hussain of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. \u201cICE is engaging in increased immigration enforcement activity, including here in San Francisco. The ways in which these cameras may be tracking people’s sensitive movements \u2013 like if they’re visiting an immigration clinic, or seeking medical care \u2013 we believe that this technology cannot be reformed.\u201d<\/p>\n Around the Bay Area, ALPR contracts with police departments have been canceled or restricted in recent months. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, a Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for governor, called for a stricter contract in September, following a police officer\u2019s use of the cameras to track<\/a> a woman\u2019s movements after she accused their cousin of domestic violence.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cToday, I am proud to announce that San Francisco is putting tighter limits on how license plate reader data can be accessed and used,\u201d San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie told reporters in late September.<\/p>\n \u201cStrengthening the public trust that has been critical to our progress on public safety,” said the Democrat.<\/p>\n Lurie announced a series of changes to ALPR use by the SFPD. This included a shortened window for access to the cameras\u2019 data from 12 months to 30 days and for more information to be filled out by officers conducting searches of the database. He also called for state legislation to penalize officers who misuse ALPR data.<\/p>\n While announcing the restrictions, Lurie maintained praise of the technology\u2019s role in reducing San Francisco\u2019s crime rates.<\/p>\n \u201cLast year, crime dropped 30%, and it\u2019s down another 20% this year,\u201d said Lurie. \u201cCar break-ins are at 22-year lows, and homicides have reached their lowest point since 1954. Good police work, along with technology, have helped us get there.\u201d<\/p>\n The decrease is good news for organizations such as Stop Crime SF.<\/p>\n \u201cThe drop in crime in San Francisco is shocking and amazing, and we are really happy about it,\u201d Frank Noto, co-founder of the policy organization, told The Center Square.<\/p>\n Crime across the board has come down dramatically during the last two years in San Francisco, according to the San Francisco Police Department<\/a>.\u00a0Violent crimes have decreased since the pandemic, with homicides down 20% and gun violence 24% from 2024 to 2025. Motor vehicle thefts dropped 24% over the same period.<\/p>\n