Fullerton officials are next in line to hold a discussion about reviewing their Flock cameras policy amid growing privacy concerns around automated license plate readers in OC and across the country.
It comes as Fullerton residents are raising privacy concerns over the rise of automated license plate readers, publicly worrying the pictures and data captured by the cameras could be leaked and used by federal agents for immigration enforcement.
[Read: Residents Across OC Increasingly Pushback on Flock Cameras]
Proponents and police officials argue the cameras help solve crimes, and Fullerton police officials say they have policies in place to prevent misuse and don’t share collected data with federal immigration agents.
Amid the concerns, officials in Fullerton are expected to discuss reviewing their policy about the nearly 20 Flock cameras in the city after receiving a presentation publicly on how police use the license plate readers in the college town last week.
Councilmember Ahmad Zahra called for an expanded discussion at the next city council meeting about the cameras and the city’s policy, arguing there have been data leaks in other cities and there are cities on both sides of the aisle that have suspended their Flock contracts.
“I don’t want a system that is surveilling the mom taking her kid out to school or for ice cream. I want to make sure that the systems we’re using are credible, are vetted and are constantly reviewed and have a public policy in place,” Zahra said at the Sept. 15 meeting, raising concerns the item was brought as a presentation and not a full fledged agenda item.
Fullerton isn’t alone in debating Flock cameras.
Santa Ana is slated to review their Flock camera contract next month after residents raised concerns about privacy and federal agents accessing the city’s data from the camera system.
Almost two months ago, Costa Mesa decided to keep their contract with Flock, despite residents’ concerns and after a Costa Mesa police officer used the cameras to stalk his wife, mistress and his mistress’ past significant other.
[Read: Costa Mesa Keeps Controversial Flock Cameras, Looks to Clean Up Contract Next Year]
Fullerton Police Chief Jon Radus said the city’s Flock cameras are legal because they are located on public roads.
“Our Flock cameras are in the public domain,” Radus said at the Sept. 15 city council meeting. “They’re on public roadways where there is no expectation of privacy, and that’s something that’s been established by all the courts across the land, that there is no expectation of privacy when you are on a public road.”
Radus said that they do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities due to Senate Bill 54. They are also not allowed to share information with other agencies outside of California.
Radus said the Fullerton Police Department controls where the data collected goes and the data collected is erased after a month unless preserved as evidence.
“[Flock] does not sell our customer data which is our information that comes from those cameras. They cannot share that data with anyone other than the people that we authorize them to share it with,” Radus said.
Personal use for the system is prohibited, according to Radus, adding that authorized users of the Flock system need to state their name, reason for use and a case number associated with their search. That search is also permanently logged, he said.
Councilmember Shana Charles supported Zahra’s request for the future discussion, saying she has concerns about residents’ civil liberties.
“When we talk about this world that we live in, I understand that our piece is just a small piece of this larger milieu, but it is the piece that the public gets to weigh in on, and that we maybe have control over. So, I think it’s due for a discussion,” she said at the meeting.
Resident Deborah Langenbacher said the cameras can be useful but worries about being over-surveilled.
“While having the license plate number of a stolen car or getaway car from a crime can be helpful for law enforcement in neighboring cities, the excessive surveillance can be potentially harmful to law-abiding residents,” Langenbacher said.
Fullerton’s Flock Cameras
Fullerton has a total of 19 automated license plate reader Flock cameras, and two of those cameras are mobile.
However, California State University of Fullerton has 46 Axon cameras, which is similar to Flock’s system.
According to Radus’ presentation, the city has spent $236,000 on the cameras for equipment, subscriptions and maintenance since Fullerton installed Flock cameras in 2021.
He also said the police have recovered 274 stolen vehicles and located 18 missing persons since installation.
Additionally, there are 135 active police officers authorized to access the system. Those users have to complete training and continue their training in order to gain access.
Radus also said detectives utilize Flock in some fashion for investigative leads in virtually every investigation.
He said the cameras only capture still-pictures of license plates and vehicles. Then the license plates and vehicles are compared to a hotlist of stolen or flagged vehicles for a crime to create investigative leads.
Radus said the system also uses AI to find a described vehicle in a specific location and time frame.
When Zahra questioned how AI processes all the data collected, Radus said he is not an expert on the cameras.
“I am not an expert on how Flock works, nor I don’t know of any chief would be, but I can tell you that it uses AI to run that [description] and then produces a response,” Radus said.
The cameras have detected over a million of unique vehicles and detected about 5,100 flagged vehicles over the last 30 days, according to Flock’s transparency webpage.
Radus said the cameras do not capture videos, utilize facial recognition or biometrics, have any names, birth dates, security numbers or addresses attached to the information from the Flock system, and there is no information from the DMV unless the vehicle is hotlisted.
He also said they do not track people continuously, predict who will commit crimes, or enforce immigration, and traffic laws.
According to the presentation, the camera systems can be utilized in two ways: in real-time or in a post-incident investigation.
In real-time, the camera system notifies officers of a vehicle or license plate linked to a crime, but before officers can pull over the vehicle to investigate, they must verify the information with other databases and systems in the department.
During a post-incident investigation, detectives can search for vehicles connected to an in-progress or reported crime in the system. They can also follow the movement of the flagged vehicle using other Flock cameras in participating California jurisdictions and businesses.
There have been about 500 searches on the system in the past 30 days, according to Flock’s transparency webpage.
Radus also said the department supervisors would audit the system annually, but he changed it to every quarter.
“I don’t want to wait 12 months to find out that there’s a potential problem,” Radus said.
He said the system will also automatically flag abnormal behavior such as searching past the 30 day retention, running the same plate multiple times, broad or unusual searches, and searches containing personal or sensitive information.
Radus also said Flock flagged 10 to 15 system access but refused to release information identifying what was flagged, adding the flags doesn’t automatically mean the system was misused just that they needed to be checked.
Additionally, Flock does an audit on who has access to Fullerton’s system.
Mayor Fred Jung said Zahra was “soapboxing” at the meeting and that Zahra should wait until the next meeting to question Radus because Radus doesn’t have the answers to Zahra’s questions.
Zahra responded that he is just doing his job.
“I’m not soapboxing. I’m asking questions because that’s my job. That’s what we’re supposed to be doing. We represent the public. I don’t represent Flock, and I don’t owe anything to anyone other than the public, and yes you can call that soapboxing. It’s called trying to get good governance.”
Lauren Contreras is a Voice of OC Tracy Wood Reporting Fellow. You can reach her at laurencontreras615@gmail.com.
