LOS ANGELES — Councilmember Ysabel Jurado today introduced a motion to stop the expansion of Flock Safety surveillance technology in the City of Los Angeles and establish stronger transparency, oversight, and accountability over the City’s use of automated license plate reader systems.
Read the motion here.
The motion calls on the Board of Police Commissioners to refrain from entering into any new agreements, contracts, memoranda of understanding, or pilot programs with Flock Safety or its affiliates. It also directs the Los Angeles Police Department to report on the City’s existing agreements with Flock, including what data is being collected and shared, where cameras are located, and whether outside agencies – including federal entities – have accessed locally collected data.
“Public safety cannot come at the cost of civil rights, immigrant protections, or the trust of the communities we serve,” said Councilmember Jurado. “Los Angeles can and must keep people safe without building a mass surveillance system that tracks residents who have done nothing wrong. When surveillance technology is deployed without meaningful transparency, enforceable limits, or clear safeguards against federal immigration access, it creates fear instead of safety and undermines the trust that real public safety depends on.”
Flock operates automated license plate reader systems that collect and store information from vehicles that pass its cameras, including license plate numbers, vehicle characteristics, timestamps, and location data. Civil liberties advocates have warned that these systems create searchable records of people’s movements and contribute to a growing nationwide surveillance infrastructure with few meaningful safeguards or limitations on data-sharing.
The motion responds to growing concerns that automated license plate reader systems can facilitate broad data-sharing across jurisdictions, including with agencies outside California that may operate under weaker privacy laws or more aggressive immigration enforcement practices. In Los Angeles – a city that has adopted policies intended to protect immigrant communities and limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement – unchecked surveillance systems risk undermining those protections and eroding public trust.
Automated license plate reader errors have also led to false identifications, wrongful stops, detentions, and arrests in jurisdictions across the country, raising serious concerns about the consequences of relying on automated systems without strong oversight and accountability. For Black, brown, immigrant, and low-income communities that already experience disproportionate surveillance and over-policing, even a small error rate can carry serious real-world consequences.
Councilmember Jurado’s motion directs a citywide review of existing practices and establishes a path toward greater accountability and the potential removal of existing devices.
Specifically, the motion:
Requests that the Board of Police Commissioners not enter into any new agreements, contracts, MOUs, or pilot programs with Flock Safety or its affiliates.
Directs LAPD to report on all existing agreements with Flock Safety, including what data is collected and shared, where cameras are located, and whether any outside agencies – including federal entities – have accessed the data.
Requests that the City Attorney review whether Flock’s data-sharing practices may violate the City’s Sanctuary Ordinance or other state and local privacy protections.
Directs LAPD to develop a clear plan and timeline for removing existing Flock devices.
LAPD entered into a three-year Memorandum of Understanding with Flock Safety in July 2023. As the Board of Police Commissioners reconsiders that agreement, Councilmember Jurado is calling for rigorous oversight, meaningful transparency, enforceable accountability measures, and clear limitations on the collection, retention, and sharing of sensitive location data.
Jurisdictions across the country, including cities in Illinois, Texas, Washington, and New York, have suspended, terminated, or declined to renew contracts with Flock Safety amid concerns over privacy, data-sharing, and civil liberties. Most recently, the City of South Pasadena chose not to renew its contract and began removing cameras in March 2026.
The motion will now be referred to the City Council’s Public Safety for consideration before advancing to the full City Council for a vote.