For the Coronado Police Department, the nine automated license plate readers surveilling the island are important for regulating activity while understaffed.
For some federal officials and residents, the black box cameras represent an invasion of privacy that can track every movement of innocent drivers.
Coronado has nine total Flock cameras, with at least four of them at the entrance to the island by the bridge, according to the city. They cost around $50,000 per year to operate.
Flock cameras are a relatively new surveillance tool, and a highly controversial one that has prompted lawsuits and protests in communities around the nation. Automatic license plate recognition technology, or ALPR, scans images of license plates and identifiable characteristics of vehicles such as make, model and color.
The information collected is used by law enforcement agencies for multiple purposes, including the investigation of auto theft and other crimes, as well as traffic violations.
Coronado Police Department (CPD) began contracting with Flock in March 2023 with City Council approving the installation sites. According to Kaylee Ricci, the city’s communications officer, data collected from the cameras is retained for a minimum of one year and then “purged” unless it is evidence in or expected to become evidence in a criminal or civil action.
The (police department) uses ALPR technology to identify stolen or wanted vehicles, stolen license plates and missing persons; follow up on active warrants; recover stolen property; and develop investigative leads.
Coronado Communications Officer Kaylee Ricci
“The (police department) uses ALPR technology to identify stolen or wanted vehicles, stolen license plates and missing persons; follow up on active warrants; recover stolen property; and develop investigative leads,” said Ricci.
In 2025, these cameras helped Coronado police officers arrest a suspect in connection with a burglary at Muhl Jewelers and helped locate a stolen U-Haul where the driver was arrested for possession of a stolen vehicle and narcotics possession.
It was announced on social media Sept. 15 that additional traffic data cameras were also installed to “help the city understand local traffic patterns and volumes and inform future transportation planning and improvements.” Those cameras were then taken down by the end of September, according to the city.
Flock controversy
Flock cameras have been the center of a nationwide conversation about privacy and surveillance as the conspicuous black rectangles, resembling laptop computers or small solar panels, have been mounted on streetlights and utility poles around the country in the last few years.
Videos circulating online have shown people vandalizing the cameras or taking them down to protest invasions of their privacy. In July, one of Coronado’s Flock cameras was removed by someone and discarded nearby, according to the San Diego Union Tribune.
Multiple lawsuits have been filed against the company, including a nationwide class-action case. The suit alleges that its cameras allow law enforcement to stalk and surveil individuals for personal purposes.
It claims that the camera system fails to safeguard people’s vehicle location information from unauthorized or improper access, “alleging that Flock’s nationwide network of cameras has ‘repeatedly’ been misused by current and former law enforcement personnel.”
Locally, a lawsuit was filed by a civil rights advocacy group at the end of September against the San Diego Police Department (SDPD) claiming that the department’s use of ALPR violates “people’s right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures as well as the people’s inalienable right to privacy.”
According to the suit, SDPD retains the camera information for 30 days in which a vehicle’s every movement can be tracked by over 500 ALPRs.
Last year, San Diego City Council voted 5-3 to keep the cameras in place after struggling to close a budget gap, the San Diego Union Tribune reported. It costs the city of San Diego $2 million a year to run their ALPR network.
Coronado opinions
In recent weeks, Coronado residents took to social media and offered varying opinions. Some defended the use of traffic surveillance, saying that if people aren’t doing anything wrong they shouldn’t be worried about cameras.
Others complained that “Big Brother” is watching, and in some cases called for camera lenses to be spray painted.
Coronado Councilmember Mark Fleming said that he was in support of Flock cameras.
Personally, I think that there’s more value added to them than there is things of concern for me.
Coronado Councilmember Mark Fleming
“Personally, I think that there’s more value added to them than there is things of concern for me,” Fleming said.
He explained that with the police force having difficulty staffing their departments in not just Coronado but nationwide, the cameras help to mitigate some of the personnel shortage.
Fleming said that he’s read about law enforcement misusing information from the cameras for their personal use, but doesn’t see that as a problem with Flock.
“I don’t see that as a failure of the system itself. That’s an internal problem with police officers that’s doing something that they shouldn’t have been doing,” Fleming said.
Nationwide opinions
Recently, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott stopped issuing approvals for the new cameras due to growing concerns, as nearly all of the Flock cameras in Texas are purchased by cities through federal funding, according to The Hill.
Garrett Langley, the CEO of Flock Safety, wrote in a blog that he’s proud of the impact Flock is making, “helping cities use their own data to solve more violent crime, recover more vehicles (and) give more victims justice.”
He wrote that all of that was possible because his camera system gives communities confidence in how the technology is being used.
In a Sept. 13 interview aboard Air Force One with Forbes, President Trump said that he “sort of” liked the cameras because they help law enforcement, and acknowledged that some people think “it’s an infringement,” but ultimately ended his answer by saying, “I like them.”
On Sept. 23, U.S. senators on both sides of the political spectrum expressed concerns about the use of the surveillance cameras and ALPRs, according to Roll Call.
During a hearing held by the Senate Judiciary Committee’s panel on crime and counterterrorism, subcommittee Chairman Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said that “Flock’s network of tens-of-thousands of cameras across almost every state presents a new challenge because billions of images are searchable, including using AI.”
Langley declined to testify at the hearing, Roll Call reported.
Contracts with federal agencies
There were also concerns about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) using information from Flock for immigration-related investigations, according to The Guardian.
“Hundreds of thousands of audit logs spanning a month show police are searching a national database of automated license plate reader data, including from school cameras,” the article claimed.
Flock Safety said it does not have a contract with ICE and that the federal agency cannot directly access the cameras or customer data through Flock. But the company does contract with federal, state and local governments, school districts and private organizations.
However, Flock’s website says decisions about whether, when and how data is shared “are made by the customer that owns the data, not by Flock,” meaning that if a customer, such as a city or private organization, chooses to work with ICE, Flock has no say in that choice.
In Langley’s blog, he says that Flock customers “own the data collected on their behalf … agencies decide how they collaborate with other agencies, and Flock doesn’t make those decisions for them.”
Fleming said he didn’t have a comment on federal agencies like ICE using Flock camera data.
DeFlock, an open-source privacy project against the use of Flock cameras, has a national database of more than 142,000 Flock cameras and where they are located. They have at least five listed in Coronado, including four along 4th Street and Glorietta Boulevard at the entrance to the island, and one at Sunset Park. There are two on Naval Air Station North Island.
According to DeFlock, 153 U.S. cities have rejected the use of Flock technology.
