Fullerton police officials are set to be the first in OC to turn off their Flock cameras for six months to see what it’s like in town without them while officials in Santa Ana have delayed a discussion on reviewing their automated license plate readers contract.
The temporary pause in the college town comes amid an expansion of automated license plate readers and other surveillance technology across Orange County that police leaders say will help solve crimes.
Meanwhile, a host of residents and activists have raised growing privacy concerns surrounding police misuse, leaks and data being shared with federal agencies as the region still reels from widespread immigration enforcement efforts that ramped up last year.
The concerns and pushback have led officials in a handful of cities to debate whether they should keep Flock contracts for the automated license plate readers ahead of the November election.
In Costa Mesa, officials opted to keep their Flock contract and instead called on staff to renegotiate their contract regarding data accessibility and collection after a local police officer used the cameras to stalk women, including his wife, an ex-girlfriend and romantic rivals.
Fullerton to Turn Off Flock For Six Months
On Tuesday, Fullerton Councilmembers voted 3-1 to turn off the cameras for six months. Councilmember Jamie Valencia voted no and Mayor Fred Jung was absent.
While cameras are turned off, the city is set to host a community town hall. After the six months, the council will review findings and compare crime rates to see if the police department can manage without them.
Leaders will also review Flock’s audit protocols and the city’s policy for automated license plate reader cameras.
Councilmember Ahmad Zahra called for the discussion and proposed turning off the cameras.
“You’ll have the ability to test your detective skills to see if in fact we can live without them,” Zahra said at the meeting.
“We have some information about prior cases, and now let’s see if in the next six months, are we achieving the same results without them or not?”
Valencia said six months was too long to turn the cameras off, adding that she didn’t want to leave the police department without that resource for that long.
“I trust our chief and I trust our department that they are good stewards and they will not abuse the system,” Valencia said. “I don’t feel comfortable turning off the cameras because it’s been helping the police officers do their job.”
The Fullerton Police Department uses 19 Flock cameras throughout the city at a $51,000 annual cost to operate the devices.
Fullerton police officers have used automated license plate readers since 2007, but their specific contract with Flock wasn’t approved until 2021. Since then, the city has spent about $236,000 to maintain and repair the Flock cameras and necessary software to keep them running.
Over a dozen people spoke at Tuesday’s meeting, many calling for the cameras to be removed and the contract to be canceled.
“What I’m hearing from our community loud and clear is that they don’t want this, even with the good it could possibly be doing,” Councilmember Shana Charles said at Tuesday’s meeting.
Councilmember Nicholas Dunlap said it’s frustrating that the council is dealing with this issue in the first place.
“I think it’s ridiculous as a council member that I’m here dealing with this because it’s not something we should be dealing with city council at the local level,” Dunlap said. “It’s much bigger than us here.”
Fullerton’s contract with Flock doesn’t expire until 2028, so staff said the topic will return to a future city council agenda immediately if turning off the cameras creates any issues with their contract.
Santa Ana Delays License Plate Reader Debate
Santa Ana officials were set to discuss automated license plate readers this week but council members decided to kick the discussion to Oct. 20 after starting their Tuesday meeting two hours late and spending roughly another hour on ceremonial presentations before starting the meeting.
The delay comes as officials announced they are launching an independent investigation into the police officers who were caught on camera last week punching a man after one of the officers threw him onto the street from the hood of a police cruiser.
Last year, city council members approved spending up to over $700,000 combined on two automated license plate reader contracts in May 2025 and directed staff to come back in a year with an update on how effective the cameras are.
Residents are still waiting for the update especially after a recent media report based on public records found a fusion center in Northern California ran searches on the city’s automated license plate reader system on behalf of federal agencies.
Brea’s Integrated Crime Center & Flock Cameras
On Tuesday, Brea residents also got a chance to hear about the police department’s new Integrated Crime Center that became fully operational in July equipped with drones, automated license plate readers and traffic signal cameras.
Councilmember Blair Stewart brought up concerns on who would be able to access the automated license plate reader data.
Police Lieutenant Tony Barbosa explained that no federal agencies are allowed to have access to the data stored in the cloud.
“We limit our access to all California agencies only,” Barbosa said at Tuesday’s meeting.
Councilwoman Christine Marick asked if the center was being audited to verify the policies and procedures are being followed and if the audits were being made public.
Barbosa said internal audits are done annually and that each user needs to put in a case number and verified reason to use the cameras. He also noted the audits are not publicly accessible.
“We simply have not had a negative finding to report. So far it’s 100% accuracy,” Barbosa said at Tuesday’s council meeting.
Yet, Santa Ana officials publicly released their own internal audits of how police officers were using the data as well as an audit of which agencies were accessing their automated license plate in response to a public records request by the Inadvertent.
Voice of OC requested organization audit and network audit records – searches made by the Brea police department and searches by other agencies using their system – from the city since 2025.
In a Wednesday email, City Clerk Victoria Popescu said the city had no responsive records to the public records request.
Currently, the city operates 190 intersection cameras in 17 different locations throughout Brea – including 18 pan-tilt zoom cameras, 43 multi-sensor cameras and one drone used as a first responder.
City council members also recently approved a facial recognition system for police officers to use in identifying suspects during investigations in August.
The system and data used is run by the OC Sheriff’s Department’s Crime Lab. Brea Police Department is not allowed to keep any database of their own through the system.
According to officials, every camera in the city is recording 24/7 with the data being retained for a period of 30 days, unless the footage is preserved to be used as evidence.
However, the data from the automated license plate readers cameras will be retained for a period of 10 years in a cloud operated by Motorola, according to Brea Police Lt. Barbosa.
Brea Resident Michael Martinez raised concerns about the 10-year data retention on the automated license plate reader cameras.
“My data and everybody else is in there for 10 years. Everywhere I go, my license plate is tracked in the city,” he said at Tuesday’s meeting. “That’s where we go, what doctor we go to, what church we go to, what protests we attend. All of that data is there for someone to use at a later date.”
Police department staff said they used surveillance technology including automated license plate readers and a drone to solve a theft at the Brea mall and the center has been able to increase the department’s ability of locating suspects.
Officials also said the drone was able to clear calls without an officer present 17 times and the cameras helped with arrests in nine investigations.
Dwight Manley, a long-time Brea developer and land-owner for the property slated to become a Costco, expressed his approval for the cameras and drones, saying they are “incredible.”
“I think if anybody’s ever been the victim of a crime and the person wasn’t caught, you would wish the police had more money, more tools and say ‘Get more drones in the air,’” Manley said at Tuesday’s council meeting.
Brea Resident Lori Davies said cameras have been misused in other places and she hopes there are as many protections in place as possible to prevent misuse from happening.
“People have been harassed and really unpleasant things have happened. Sometimes the cameras have been used to target protestors for different causes around the country,” Davies said at Tuesday’s meeting.
“That doesn’t seem like an appropriate use of the cameras.”
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org.
Angelina Hicks is the Voice of OC Collegiate News Service Editor. Contact her at ahicks@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @angelinahicks13.
Sara Leon is a Voice of OC reporting fellow. You can reach her at sleon7903@gmail.com.
