Ventura County ALPR data breach exposed by Flock configuration flaw

An automated license plate reader system flaw in Ventura County, California, allowed federal and out-of-state agencies to query local ALPR data in violation of state law. The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office audited the system on Feb. 11 and found over 364,000 searches by out-of-state agencies between Feb. 19 and March 19, 2025. Other agencies reported similar access: Port Hueneme logged 798,000 out-of-state queries, Oxnard two, Ventura two. The feature called ‘National Lookup’ had been inadvertently enabled. Oxnard suspended its Flock system; others continued using it with new safeguards.