Public alarm over surveillance and the use of data collected by automated license plate readers has prompted pushback from Orange County residents over city contracts, most recently in Santa Ana, with community organizers urging leaders to cancel current contracts, citing privacy and other concerns.
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Joined by Santa Ana councilmembers Jessie Lopez and Benjamin Vasquez, organizers from CHISPA, a local youth-led organizing group, held a press conference Wednesday, Sept. 9, outside city hall to call on the city to cancel its contracts with Flock Safety and Motorola Solutions.
Tanya Navarro, Organizing Director for Chispa, a community and political advocacy organization leading grassroots campaigns and protests to stop local cities from installing and expanding Flock Safety automated license plate reader cameras, speaks during a press conference for the group outside Santa Ana City Hall while supporters hold signs around her on Wednesday, September 9, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Jessie Lopez, Santa Ana City Councilmember from Ward 3, urges her fellow councilmembers to cancel the city’s contracts with Flock Safety and Motorola, arguing that the contracts and the city’s use of automated license plate reader cameras lead to an invasion of privacy on local residents, during a press conference in front of city hall in Santa Ana on Wednesday, September 9, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Privacy advocates hold signs during a press conference for the group Chispa, a community and political advocacy organization leading grassroots campaigns and protests to stop local cities from installing and expanding Flock Safety automated license plate reader cameras, outside Santa Ana City Hall on Wednesday, September 9, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Isuri Ramos, Executive Director of Chispa, a community and political advocacy organization leading grassroots campaigns and protests to stop local cities from installing and expanding Flock Safety automated license plate reader cameras, speaks outside Santa Ana City Hall during a press conference on Wednesday, September 9, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Jessie Lopez, Santa Ana City Councilmember from Ward 3, urges her fellow councilmembers to cancel the city’s contracts with Flock Safety and Motorola, arguing that the contracts and the city’s use of automated license plate reader cameras lead to an invasion of privacy on local residents, during a press conference in front of city hall in Santa Ana on Wednesday, September 9, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Privacy advocates hold signs during a press conference for the group Chispa, a community and political advocacy organization leading grassroots campaigns and protests to stop local cities from installing and expanding Flock Safety automated license plate reader cameras, outside Santa Ana City Hall on Wednesday, September 9, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A piñata mock up of a Flock camera sits next to a podium during a press conference for the group Chispa, a community and political advocacy organization leading grassroots campaigns and protests to stop local cities from installing and expanding Flock Safety automated license plate reader cameras, in front of Santa Ana City Hall on Wednesday, September 9, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Tanya Navarro, Organizing Director for Chispa, a community and political advocacy organization leading grassroots campaigns and protests to stop local cities from installing and expanding Flock Safety automated license plate reader cameras, speaks during a press conference for the group outside Santa Ana City Hall on Wednesday, September 9, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Antenore, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Organizers argued that the technology can collect location information from large numbers of people who are not suspected of crimes and creates opportunities for federal agencies to access sensitive data that may put undocumented residents at risk — conflicting with Santa Ana’s own commitment as a sanctuary city.
Tania Navarro, CHISPA’s organizing director, said she acknowledged the consequences of vehicle theft — she has personally experienced having a family car stolen — but argued that automated license plate reader systems are not an appropriate solution.
“I stand here today to call on the council to invest in people, not surveillance,” said Navarro. “Our community never wanted this. When they approved this technology, they justified it by claiming it would make us safer from criminals. That’s how entire communities become criminalized.”
She also argued the contracts were approved without meaningful community engagement and pushed for the city to release an “overdue” one-year staff update requested by the council when it approved the contracts in May 2025. It is supposed to review the installation, use and effectiveness of both systems.
The Santa Ana Police Department operates 24 Flock license-plate reader cameras, retaining data captured for 365 days. That data is accessible to a range of agencies statewide that participate in the system network, including other local police departments, sheriff’s departments in neighboring counties, district attorneys and regional intelligence centers, according to Flock’s transparency page on Santa Ana.
In a separate five-year agreement, the city bought 32 Motorola cameras in 2025 to augment a regional partnership and provide mobile units for patrol vehicles.
Authorities say the system is not used to target individuals based on protected characteristics such as race, sex or religion, nor is it used for immigration or routine traffic enforcement. The cameras record a vehicle’s plate, along with the date, time and location, and can determine whether a plate is partial, temporary, or missing, and identify characteristics such as vehicle type and color. The Motorola cameras also allow police to conduct searches by make, model, speed, and direction.
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A Santa Ana Police Department spokesperson was not immediately reached Wednesday for comment.
The department “respects the privacy of our community” and the cameras “only capture license plates and vehicle images, they do not photograph vehicle occupants and do not use facial recognition technology,” the SAPD website says.
Lopez said she voted against the contracts out of concern over other agencies being able to access the data recorded and it ending up “in federal hands without their consent or a warrant.”
She also called on the city to release the promised review and end its agreements with both vendors.
Vasquez said the city’s Police Oversight Commission should have reviewed the proposal to use automated license plate readers in Santa Ana.
“The real depth and research is lost when it’s part of a 40-part agenda,” he said of the council, “versus them taking a whole three hours to look at one policy and really digest it and break it down, and be critical of it.”
Councilmember Phil Bacerra said he voted to approve the contracts, but would welcome the review and more public discussion now that the camera system has been in use for a year.
“I welcome the idea. Why wouldn’t we want a performance check on something,” he said. “I voted for it, but if it came back and showed that, hey, it’s not working, then yeah, we should be analytical about what we do.”
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