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A running, sourced timeline of how license-plate readers, body cams and AI policing tools are actually going — and what the failures cost taxpayers.

Timeline / entry

· San Francisco, CA

Class action says Flock illegally shared Californians' plate data with federal and out-of-state agencies

On February 26, 2026, the law firms Gibbs Mura and Milberg filed a class action against Flock Safety in San Francisco Superior Court, alleging the company violated California’s ALPR Privacy Act (SB 34, 2015) by letting out-of-state and federal agencies, including ICE, CBP, the FBI and the ATF, query California cameras. An amended complaint was filed April 3, 2026. The suit cites San Francisco police cameras being searched by outside agencies more than 1.6 million times in about seven months and a Ventura County audit that found roughly 364,000 unauthorized searches. The Ventura audit, reported in February 2026, found that the National Lookup feature had been reactivated after the sheriff’s office disabled it in 2023; 299 of the queries were explicitly linked to immigration enforcement, and Oxnard police suspended their readers. The suit seeks $2,500 per violation.

Also in San Francisco, CA

5 entries over 17 yr 4 mo, oldest first. The gap is the time since the previous one.

  1. San Francisco settles plate-misread gunpoint stop for $495,000
  2. +16 yr 5 moSFPD let out-of-state agencies run 1.6 million searches of its Flock data, some for ICE
  3. +6 monthsClass action says Flock illegally shared Californians' plate data with federal and out-of-state agencies this entry
  4. +4 monthsSFPD audit finds Flock camera data accessed on behalf of federal, out-of-state agencies
  5. +29 daysClass action alleges Motorola and Vigilant illegally shared California license plate data

Sources

  1. Flock Safety License Plate Reader Cameras Lawsuit — Gibbs Mura, A Law Group (classlawgroup.com)
  2. Flock license plate readers shared data with out-of-state agencies, Ventura County audit finds — CBS Los Angeles, Feb 27, 2026 (cbsnews.com)
  3. Class Action: Flock Shared California Plate Data With Feds 1.6 — State of Surveillance, Mar 17, 2026 (stateofsurveillance.org)[archive]

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