Scores of residents have been increasingly raising concerns about police surveillance throughout Orange County, chiefly raising concerns about automatic license plate readers like Flock cameras.
Earlier this month, Fullerton officials temporarily turned off Flock cameras in town for six months.
Now, officials in Santa Ana are latest in OC to debate whether to keep their automated license plate readers or end the contracts for the cameras.
The expansion of Flock camera usage in the region has been a hot point in a debate on public safety and surveillance with police officials and some elected leaders saying they help solve crimes.
Many residents and activists, however, have raised growing privacy concerns about mass surveillance, police misuse, data leaks and sharing with federal agencies as residents still reel from immigration enforcement efforts that ramped up in 2025.
At their 5:30 p.m. meeting Tuesday, Santa Ana City Council members are expected to debate whether they want to direct the city manager to come back with options to end or suspend their two automated license plate reader contracts that together cost up to over $700,000.
The discussion comes at the request of Councilwoman Jessie Lopez, who is running for state assembly and who raised concerns about the cameras when the contracts came before city council last year.
“Neither agreement allows the City to terminate at will. Each contains specific provisions
for termination, nonrenewal or early exit that carry different costs and timelines,” reads Lopez’s request.
“The Flock agreement renews automatically for 24 months unless notice is given. Santa Ana
residents deserve a clear accounting of who has accessed this data, whether that
access complied with state law, and what the City’s options are.”
Lopez’s request comes after a recent report by the Inadvertent, based on public records, found that a northern California fusion center accessed the city’s system on behalf of federal agencies.
Officials Tuesday also slated to discuss calling for an overdue one year update on the camera’s effectiveness as well as a report on what outside agencies have been accessing their cameras’ system and how.
Meanwhile, some candidates running for city council in the November election have raised their own concerns about the cameras.
To view which cross streets the cameras are located, click here.
According to Flock’s transparency page, there were over 1.2 million unique vehicles detected in the past month in Santa Ana and 375 searches.
Where is The One-Year Update? OC Debates Flock
When they approved the two contracts in May 2025 with Motorola and Flock, Santa Ana officials did so with direction for staff to come back in a year with a report on how effective the cameras are and their usage.
Almost a year and half later, officials have yet to receive that report with Councilman David Penaloza, who is running against Lopez for state assembly, previously saying the license plate readers weren’t installed till around September of last year and so the one year report isn’t months late.
At the same time, Penaloza said having a conversation about the automated license plate readers is well founded.
City leaders in Santa Ana aren’t the first in OC to debate whether they should keep their Flock cameras on.
Costa Mesa officials this summer decided to keep their Flock contract and called on staff to renegotiate their contract regarding data accessibility and collection after a Costa Mesa police officer used the devices to stalk women, including his wife, an ex-girlfriend and romantic rivals.
Earlier this month, Fullerton officials became the first in OC to turn off their cameras amid privacy concerns from residents.
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org.
