Data breach drives fears as advocates, councilmen urge end to use of police camera system

Anti-ALPR activists gather at Civic Center Plaza on Dec in front of a giant inflatable camera Photo by Adrian Childress Times of San Diego Councilmembers Sean Elo-Rivera and Henry Foster III joined society advocates Thursday to urge San Diego to halt its use of Flock automated license plate readers Over advocates gathered at Civic Center Plaza chanting Get the Flock out and carrying signs saying Broken trust necessities repair The call comes ahead of Tuesday s city council meeting where members will consider whether the San Diego Police Department should continue using Flock s ALPR system Advocates say a statistics breach involving unauthorized searches of San Diegans information along with documented abuses in other states shows the mechanism poses serious privacy risks Other representatives however say the tool is essential for solving crimes recovering stolen vehicles and keeping the city safe The TRUST SD coalition that stands for Transparent and Responsible Use of Surveillance Tool San Diego held a news conference Thursday to call attention to Flock s issues The information breach resulted in entities outside San Diego making thousands of searches of locals voyage information the reason for those searches remains unknown Advocates flagged issues with Flock across the nation including a police chief in Georgia who was not long ago charged with using the Atlanta company s readers to stalk and harass people Flock has disputed various of the other declares against them as misleading Foster declared that when other cities and states are experiencing issues it suggests that it is not a one-time mistake it reflects a deeper pattern He added We just need to make sure that who we are doing business with is a responsible party Elo-Rivera stated that Flock s pattern of abuse makes the firm impossible to trust Advocates fear that federal agencies such as the Department of Homeland Defense Frontier Patrol and ICE will access the facts to fulfill the Trump administration s deportation agenda The number of people who are being given legitimate reason to fear the federal authorities is rising on a daily basis declared Elo-Rivera Although California law mostly forbids ALPR content from being shared with federal agents a latest lawsuit in El Cajon over a breach of this law has fueled fears about its use Flock maintains that content sharing with federal agencies is the decision of local law enforcement Patricia Mondragon of Alliance San Diego fears use of the innovation will erode trust in local law enforcement When people are afraid to call for help we are all less safe she disclosed Branden Sigua of the ACLU chapter that serves San Diego and Imperial counties expressed concern that the surveillance machinery would be used to monitor people attending protests and union meetings The dystopian future George Orwell envisioned in is our dystopian present he commented ALPR tool has assisted local law enforcement in finding stolen vehicles as well as solving homicide robbery and assault cases San Diego police noted that since automated license plate reader equipment was adopted in it has assisted with investigations including the recovery of million in stolen property and stolen vehicles In a message Councilmember Raul Campillo commented that APLR apparatus is critical in keeping San Diego safe The thought of doing away with ALPRs is short-sighted and goes against the city s mission to protect residents and visitors alike We must not allow fear to harm already worried communities by making them less safe he reported The coalition is united on ending the use of Flock s ALPR device but it was unclear if advocates agreed on whether alternative system would be acceptable Seth Hall of TRUST SD stated that instead of the best of the best mechanism the city with Flock selected the worst of the worst equipment That the city has people within it that are fighting to continue to use the worst of the worst should be unacceptable Hall declared The region rightly expects that if we re going to use dangerous technologies like this that we re going to use the best of the best the safest Earlier last month the city s Privacy Advisory Board issued a formal recommendation that San Diego stop using the Flock system and identified agenda and product changes needed to operate the tool with professionalism The following week the council s Population Safety Committee which includes Campillo unanimously voted to approve the continued use of Flock equipment without any changes to the policies or product