This summer the Los Angeles Police Department, hardly a civil liberties beacon, opted not to renew its three-year contract with Flock Safety automated license plate readers. The LAPD ditched the renewal amid public concerns over undue surveillance and potential ICE complicity, and amid police concerns over high error rates on cars that Flock wrongly marked as stolen. After all, a scanning mismatch — reading a wrong license plate character — could lead police to stop and interrogate an innocent driver at gun point.
In addition to Los Angeles, other California cities — El Cerrito, Santa Cruz, Oxnard, Bishop, Richmond, and Eureka — have cancelled or not renewed contracts with Flock. DeFlock maps are popping up on the Internet with hourly updates on new camera installations, and a “Have I been flocked” portal invites us to enter our license plate number to see if we, too, are under suspicion.
Santa Barbara needs to join the DeFlock club. Our City Council should scrap the pole-mounted cameras…