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September 18 Newsletter

Hi Neighbor,

Welcome back to the Deflock Sac Metro newsletter! From local to national, there has been movement across the board against the fight on ALPRs. There are some local updates at the end of this newsletter, so please make sure to check that out.

We put out a newsletter in your email every 1st and 3rd Friday of the month packed with local and national updates, action items, and upcoming events in the Greater Sacramento area that are from allied organizations or opportunity to interact with local representatives outside of the council chambers. These newsletters will come with scripts and talking points to help you form public comment off agenda. Even when we do not have the ability to have big crowds regularly at city council and board of supervisor meetings, the consistent and persistent comments help lay the groundwork for when the time comes for when the contracts come up.

HOPE:

Let some of these community wins in other cities encourage you to keep the pressure up:

Alameda County, CA. Albany City Council Rejected New ALPR Contract on September 8. The council voted to reject a new contract with Motorola Services, just days before Albany’s existing camera contract with Flock is set to expire. Community members successfully pressured local officials to end the use of Flock license plate cameras back in May of this year. Now they have succeeded in stopping a replacement! Happy to celebrate another win for our neighbors in the Bay Area. Full article can be found here.

Folsom, CA. This one is a cancel pending but since it is local, we want to make sure to highlight it. In a Folsom City Council forum held by The League of Women Voters of Sacramento County, a community member asked a question regarding the city’s Flock Safety contract. Councilmember Sarah Aquino shared that Police Chief Adam Green made the decision to cancel the contract during the process of reviewing and updating FPD department policies. While they still plan to keep their Motorola ALPRs, it is a step in the right direction. They expect this to go before city council in the next month or so. We are still waiting on information about the forum with a few different connections in multiple avenues. You can read that article here. The article is behind a paywall, but article “clicks” matter so please still open that link so the Bee knows this story and those like it should continue to be covered. Check the Secure Justice Tracker below for alternative ways to read.

FOLSOM! It is your time to show up. Continue reading for talking points and a script to help push your city council further!

At the time of preparing this news letter, 373 contracts have been cancelled since October of 2024. Secure Justice has developed a tracker that is on their website. You can check that out here. These stories show how public pressure can lead to change from the law enforcement offices and the elected officials. Please be inspired by that to continue to pressure our officials to remove all ALPRs from our streets.

REASON:

It seems like every day there is a new article that comes out with a new story of an officer abusing the system, Flock getting caught in another lie, or even confirmations of what we already were aware of like the 404 media x WIRED article that came out this week about what hackers found inside a camera they stole to look inside. Check out these others:

Cops Search Thousands of Flock Cameras for Reasons of ‘LMAO,’ ‘IDK,’ ‘Hehe,’ and ‘asdfg’ by 404 Media: 404 Media reported on a new EFF analysis of Flock’s “reason” logs, which showed cops across the country typing gibberish, jokes, and insults to justify searches of the surveillance network. One Lake County, Indiana officer searched a plate across more than 19,000 cameras and simply wrote “LMAO” as the reason. Others logged “idk,” “hehe,” “fuck this new search engine,” and pure keyboard mashing like “asdfg” and “jhjhjkhj.” When departments were confronted, most did little — cops who wrote “hehe” and “idk” were merely “counseled,” and one who wrote “idiot” avoided discipline because the union’s 90-day investigation window had lapsed. As EFF put it, the pattern shows agencies “cannot be trusted to oversee themselves.” You can read more from 404 Media’s article here.

California Flock Camera Bill Fails After Last-Minute Assembly Defeat by ABC10: ABC10 reported on the fifth consecutive year that California lawmakers have failed to pass legislation regulating Flock cameras, despite growing public concern over the technology. Senate Bill 1013, co-authored by Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal and state Senator Sabrina Cervantes, aimed to regulate automated license plate readers but was defeated on the Assembly floor before reaching a final vote. It was similar to a bill the same pair authored last year that reached Governor Newsom’s desk before he vetoed it, saying it didn’t strike the right balance between privacy and public safety. “I think there are many legislators on both sides of the aisle that are extremely disappointed that we weren’t able to move a bill this year,” Lowenthal told ABC10. Legislative analyst Chris Micheli called the defeat a surprise given the growing public opposition to Flock cameras, saying it “goes to show the power of law enforcement.” You can read more from ABC10’s article here.

This bill faced scrutiny on both sides as privacy groups were concerned about the language of the bill allowing for the data to be kept in an achieve rather than deleting. Our friend’s at Secure Justice did a great write up explaining the shortcomings of the bill. They highlight what ways the bill needed to be improved as

“Lawmakers should amend SB 1013 to: *Restore mandatory deletion rather than mandatory archival. *Preserve local authority to adopt much shorter retention periods. *Begin meaningful DOJ oversight when the law takes effect, rather than waiting until late 2029. *Remove CDTFA’s default access to locally collected ALPR databases. *Replace entity-based exemptions with activity-based exemptions and an explicit mixed-use savings clause. *Restore a strong case/incident-number requirement with only narrow, documented exceptions.”

We encourage you to read their full post as there is much misinformation floating around about this bill. You can find that post here.

As always, check out the Institute for Justice’s database logging ALPR abuses nationwide for the most up to date information coming out in between newsletters.

Action:

Please use the talking points below to build your own public comment or submit the script below to city and county elected officials. If you work, shop, or visit any city within Sacramento County, we encourage you to lobby each council. Cities want to be visited by outside residents to spend their money in the city, your voice still matters even when you do not live in the city limits.

  • Efficacy of ALPRs and reduction of crime
    • Source: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/24751979.2025.2473363
    • 2025 ALPR study “…builds on the scant research base by performing both a process- and impact-evaluation of a major ALPR technology expansion in the Atlantic City (NJ) Police Department (ACPD), which is located on a barrier island.”
      • This study found only one (1) previous study conducted in 2019 on the efficacy of stationary ALPRs as opposed to those mounted on patrol vehicles. A separate study (Koper & Lum, 2019) found that the ALPRs decreased crime by a statistically insignificant amount, and even that study contained a variety of threats to internal validity (i.e. the study failed to prove that the ALPRs were really the reason for the decrease in crime – it is likely that a mix of factors resulted in the (statistically insignificant) decrease.)
      • “During the […] twenty-five-month time period, these ALPRs documented 78,859,548 total reads/scans of license plates and 1,978,578 alerts.” Of those 1,978,578 alerts, the police departments responded live (i.e. sent an officer out on a call) to 87.
      • “breakdown of the total alerts, the vast majority were for either “other” (n = 1,752,299; 88.6%) or the registered owner’s license being “suspended or revoked” (n = 181,984; 9.2%). All other types of alerts occurred much less frequently, including for “stolen plate” (n = 20,305; 1.0%), “stolen vehicle” (n = 12,384; 0.6%), “unknown” (n = 7,224; 0.4%), “sex offender” (n = 2,290; 0.1%), “wanted person” (n = 1,663; 0.08%), and “violent gang” (n = 294; 0.01%). Alerts for the first two categories occurred continuously: with “other” averaging 2,302.6 per 24 h (95.9 per hour) and “suspended or revoked” averaging 239.1 per 24 h (10.0 per hour). Relatively more serious “stolen plate” and “stolen vehicle” alerts are more manageable: occurring, on average, 26.7 times and 16.3 times per 24 h, respectively. Still, this means ACPD is being alerted to a stolen plate about once per hour and a stolen vehicle approximately once every less than two hours for cameras scanning in both directions—inbound and outbound.”
      • During the study period “only 87 documented patrol-related responses (as opposed to investigatory functions) to active ALPR alerts from November 2022 through December 2024. Of those 87 alerts, 52 were for stolen vehicles (59.8%), 13 for stolen plates (14.9%), 14 for wanted persons (i.e., warrants) (16.1%), and 8 for suspended or revoked license/registration (9.2%). Seventy-two vehicle stops were initiated with 40 stolen vehicles and 9 stolen license plates recovered from those initiated stops. Additionally, the vast majority of these 72 stops resulted in individuals being charged and taken into custody (n = 66) or issued a summons (n = 1). On other occasions, 18 stolen vehicles and 5 stolen license plates were recovered after being found abandoned/unoccupied for a total of 58 recovered stolen vehicles and 14 recovered stolen licenses plates over the 26-month period.”
      • Overall, the study found a statistically insignificant reduction in violent crimes, although specific crimes (shootings, general property crime, and car theft) showed a small reduction. It is relevant to note that the violent crimes unit (VCU) significantly increased their usage of the ALPR system (going from using it for 57.8% of their investigations in December 2022 to 75% of their investigations through November 2024). This, combined with a statistically insignificant increase in clearance rates of cases (77% to 80%) as well as the general decrease in violent crime after 2022, suggests that the decrease in specific criminal acts were more correlated with increased investigations than the ALPR system.
  • Flock ALPRs track humans
    • Source: https://www.404media.co/hackers-stole-flocks-camera-software-revealing-how-the-company-tracks-cars-and-people-2/ and https://www.404media.co/how-cops-use-flock-to-track-people-not-cars/
    • “The software running on the camera explicitly detects people, something which is typically overlooked in discussions around Flock cameras. When it spots a person, it records where they appear in the image and how confident it is in the detection.”
    • While it does not have facial recognition, “WIRED and 404 Media found no evidence of any face-recognition capabilities in the camera’s software beyond ones included by default in the Android operating system. Those capabilities did not appear to be enabled or in active use.”
    • FreeForm searches have been seen in Elk Grove, searching for people characteristics. Elk Grove has been the only local group able to complete an audit as all auditable information, including unique ID’s, have been redacted. We cannot confirm if any other local agency is using FreeForm.
    • “This is a classic bait-and-switch. Your town was pitched a tool to catch stolen cars and find missing kids,” Tom Bowman, policy counsel, security & surveillance, at the Center for Democracy & Technology, told 404 Media in a statement. Instead, cops now have the capability to search for a specific person or description of a person across a wealth of camera networks at once. “It’s like being sold a smoke detector and only later finding out it’s been recording every conversation in your house.” – 404 Media, How Cops Use Flock to Track People Not Cars

Contact information for all local elected officials can be found on our website
Script:

Dear Councilmembers:

Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs), no matter the vendor, do more than just track cars. Motorola uses AI facial recognition, Axon introduces human identifing in their FUSUS system, and Flock is knowingly tracking humans. We did not sign up for this.

The public is told time and time again by local officials that these are just for cars, but clearly they are so much more. It is unclear where the disconnect in information is coming from – from vendor to police, police to council, or council to public. In every situation, the appropriate response is to cancel the contract and remove the cameras from our streets.

On top of the human tracking abilities, one major concern is the efficacy in helping reduce or solve crime. In 2025 there was a study done related to the ALPR usage in Atlantic City, NJ. In their findings, out of 1,978,578 alerts, only 87 resulted in a live response. In the time period studied, there was a statistically insignificant increase in violent crimes and crime clearance rates. There was a small decrease in some specific crimes like shootings, general property crime, and car theft. This is one of the more comprehensive studies done by an outside agency that is publicly available, since much of the information is behind closed doors.

If we insist on continuing the use of these cameras despite the clear 4th amendment violations, the very least you can do is demand an audit from an outside agency. Any audits done in house do not actually provide any transparency.

Again, I urge you to push for an audit completed by an outside agency, move to cancel our ALPR contracts, and remove this warrantless mass surveillance network from our streets.

Thank you,

Name

FOLSOM
If you live, work, shop, or play in the Folsom area – Now is your time to push the council further than just cancelling the Flock Safety contract. Use this script or let it get ideas flowing for forming your own.

Dear Councilmembers:

Recently, The Bee reported on the possibility that Folsom will be cancelling their contract with Flock Safety and continuing the use of the Motorola ALPRs. While this is a great first step, we have the opportunity to do better. Automatic License Plate Readers or ALPRs are violations of the 4th amendment right of the US Constitution. Motorola’s specifically integrate with systems to build a web so intrusive that, “in some cases allowing law enforcement to search video and track individuals across cameras” (Source: EFF). This is not what we signed up for. This is not what it is supposed to look like living in the United States of America.

If we are planning on keeping some ALPRs, I do encourage you to look into this 2025 study done related to the ALPR usage in Atlantic City, NJ. In their findings, out of 1,978,578 alerts, only 87 resulted in a live response. In the time period studied, there was a statistically insignificant increase in violent crimes and crime clearance rates. There was a small decrease in some specific crimes like shootings, general property crime, and car theft. This is one of the more comprehensive studies done by an outside agency that is publicly available, since much of the information is behind closed doors.

We are spending our resources on a system that doesn’t put out enough value to justify the cost. I urge you to move to cancel usage of ALL vendors for ALPRs within the City of Folsom.

Thank you,

Name

Local Highlights:

There are a lot of really great organizations across the Sacramento Region doing great things. We want to highlight a few for you here. Additionally, there are some city elected officials with opportunities to meet outside of council chambers.

Make sure to sign our petitions at https://c.org/XbmBXxLqvg and https://c.org/B2rtgCd29r

In solidarity,

Deflock Sac Metro Community

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