Costa Mesa reconsiders use of Flock license plate readers
Local immigrant rights groups are hoping Costa Mesa cancels its contract with Flock, a security hardware company known for its automatic license plate readers.
The city currently has 46 of the company's cameras placed at key intersections across town. Victor Valladares of Resilience OC, a nonprofit that advocates for the Latino community, claimed that the federal government has access to Flock's data.
"So, what the Trump administration is doing is obtaining this information as a third-party recipient through Flock; buying this information and tracking our most vulnerable residents," Valladares said. "We've seen this happen throughout the country, and we don't need this. We don't need this."
The Costa Mesa Police Department denied his claims.
"Our ALPR system can only be used for legitimate law enforcement purposes and will never be utilized for immigration enforcement or purposes not specific to enforcement of California laws," the agency wrote.
Over the last few months, residents have expressed their disapproval of the Flock cameras, prompting the City Council to hold a meeting to decide the future of its contract with the security company.
"The system has had a lot of success," Mayor John Stephens said. "We've solved a lot of crimes and I think we've deterred a lot of crimes."
Stephens said the frustration about the Flock system has recently turned into concerns about privacy.
"What has been expressed by the people that are coming to talk to us at public comments is there's a back door through Flock," Stephens said. "There's a possibility that the information can be shared. So, what the council's going to do is consider those points and drill down and ask our police department about those issues. Then, in the end, we're going to make a policy decision."
The city's consideration comes months after a former Costa Mesa police officer pleaded guilty in April 2026 to using law enforcement tools, including Flock license plate readers, to track his wife, mistress and romantic rivals.
Earlier this year, the Ventura County Sheriff's Office and other law enforcement agencies in the region explored alternative vendors for automatic license plate readers after learning that Flock had inadvertently shared their data with out-of-state law enforcement agencies, including federal agents.
The company told deputies that someone at the Sheriff's Office or a Flock employee could have reactivated the feature, or that a system bug could have automatically activated it.
In response, the Sheriff's Office said, "We conducted an internal investigation and determined that no one from our agency activated the national lookup feature."
Flock said it made internal improvements to their system to prevent the same issue.
