DeFlock Auburn Ca
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RESOURCES

TOOLKITS + COVERAGE

Organizing toolkits from other DeFlock campaigns, plus a running log of news coverage on Flock Safety, ALPR surveillance, and the fight to roll it back. Have something we're missing? Send it our way →

RESOURCES  //  TOOLKITS

DEFLOCK TOOLKITS

Campaign playbooks other cities and counties have used to organize against Flock/ALPR contracts — useful for public comment strategy, coalition-building, and city council asks.

ALL DEFLOCK PUBLIC TOOLKITS

A running index of public toolkits from other campaigns — including Santa Cruz County, Santa Clara County, Oakland, and Richmond — plus a template toolkit to adapt for your own city.

CPRA TOOLKIT

Learn how to file a California Public Records Act request to obtain audit logs, vendor contracts, and retention policies — use our template to request the same records we did.

RESOURCES  //  REFERENCE GUIDES

REFERENCE GUIDES

Background reading on how ALPR cameras work, the arguments made for and against them, and where the data actually goes.

FLOCK 101

Flock is a private surveillance company that builds automated license plate recognition (ALPR) cameras used by police departments, HOAs, and private businesses. Each camera photographs plate, make, model, and color, and timestamps the location.

LOBBYING TALKING POINTS

Reference points for council conversations — framing this as a technology and privacy issue, with examples like Mountain View's decision to shut off its Flock cameras.

DISPELLING MYTHS ABOUT FLOCK

A fact-based guide to the common claims made in favor of ALPR cameras — effectiveness data, the legal landscape, and where those claims hold up or fall apart.

ALPR AGENCY SHARING MAP

An interactive map of thousands of agencies nationwide, showing which ones share ALPR data with each other — including flagged out-of-state, private, and federal recipients.

RESOURCES  //  NEWS COVERAGE

FLOCK IN THE NEWS

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August 11, 2026 · ABC10

Grass Valley police suspends fixed-point license plate readers, cancels Flock Safety contract

Grass Valley's police chief announced the department would indefinitely suspend its ALPR cameras and cancel its Flock Safety contract, citing unresolved legal and privacy concerns — cameras were physically removed from city streets within a day.

August 2026 · Auburn Journal

Public has spoken: Get the Flock (cameras) out of Auburn

Auburn City Council is exploring a town hall meeting to continue researching and discussing the license-plate cameras, following sustained public comment and petitioning. Exact publish date estimated — the outlet's site doesn't expose a byline date to automated tools; worth confirming before citing it precisely.

July 31, 2026 · KRCR

Chico parents raise privacy concerns over AI-powered school cameras

Parents in the Chico Unified School District are pushing back on the district's approval of AI-powered security cameras across 691 campus locations, questioning who can access student data stored in the cloud.

July 31, 2026 · Business Insider

Flock cameras got the wrong license plate 71% of the time in a California city

Public records obtained by Business Insider show Roseville PD's Flock cameras misread license plates in the large majority of felony/stolen-vehicle alerts sent over a two-year span — the kind of error rate one policy expert called "beyond the pale."

August 8, 2026 · TMJ4

Cudahy gun range removes Flock cameras over privacy concerns

A Milwaukee-area gun range removed all three of its Flock cameras after a viral video of them circulated, saying it was told by Flock it was contractually obligated to keep them despite requesting removal months earlier.

July 28, 2026 · Atlanta Community Press Collective

Flock, Ring, and Atlanta's network of 28,000+ cameras haven't improved the city's crime clearance rates

An FBI-data analysis found that despite an eightfold increase in Atlanta's Flock and Axon/Fusus-integrated camera network since 2021, clearance rates across nine major crime categories — including homicide — have stayed flat or declined.

July 2026 · KCRA

Opposition to Flock surveillance cameras grows in the Sacramento region

Sacramento-area TV coverage of the fast-growing pushback against Flock/ALPR cameras, part of a wider statewide and national wave of cities reconsidering their contracts. Exact publish date unconfirmed — KCRA's site blocks automated access, so this is placed by month only. Worth double-checking the byline date before citing it publicly.

July 2026 · ABC7 Los Angeles

LAPD ending agreement with surveillance company Flock Safety amid privacy concerns

LAPD let its three-year Flock Safety agreement expire, citing civil liberties and data-privacy concerns, and says it wants stronger privacy and data-storage language before signing any new contract.

June 10, 2026 · 404 Media

Cops keep getting arrested for using Flock to stalk people

A pattern of officers misusing camera access for personal, non-investigative reasons — including a Florida officer who ran his ex-girlfriend's plate through Flock at least 69 times.

June 8, 2026 · 404 Media

This company will add phone, AirPod, and smartwatch trackers to license plate readers

A defense contractor's new "SignalTrace" sensors would let ALPR cameras sweep up Bluetooth identifiers from nearby phones and wearables, linking specific people — not just cars — to a license plate.

May 29, 2026 · 404 Media

Cities are covering Flock cameras with trash bags

Dayton, Ohio and Evanston, Illinois both resorted to bagging their Flock cameras with trash bags as a stopgap after finding they weren't sure whether their contracts even allowed them to shut the cameras off.

May 2026 · 404 Media

City learns Flock accessed cameras in children's gymnastics room as a sales pitch demo — renews contract anyway

Reporting on Flock sales employees accessing cameras in a children's gymnastics room, a playground, a school, and a Jewish community center as demo material for other police departments.

April 28, 2026 · Gadget Review

Auburn, California Flock surveillance cameras stolen and dumped in a canal

Local coverage of three Auburn-area Flock cameras torn from their mounts near Highway 49 and Nevada Street and dumped in a canal.

February 2026 · NBC News

Border Patrol agent's text messages after Chicago shooting released

A federal judge ordered the release of body-camera footage, Flock camera footage, and text messages from the Border Patrol agent who shot Chicago resident Marimar Martinez — part of the evidence in her since-dismissed case. Exact day within February unconfirmed; the underlying court order and release happened across several days that month.

February 2, 2026 · City of Mountain View

Message to the Community from Police Chief Mike Canfield

Mountain View's police chief announced he was turning off every Flock camera in the city immediately, after an audit found Flock had quietly configured the system to allow far broader outside-agency access than the department had approved.

January 28, 2026 · Los Altos Online

Los Altos Hills to remove ALPR cameras

The Los Altos Hills City Council voted to end its Flock contract and remove all 31 cameras, citing data-privacy concerns, cost, and doubts about whether the cameras had actually reduced burglaries.

January 14, 2026 · KQED

Santa Cruz the first in California to terminate its contract with Flock Safety

Santa Cruz's city council voted 6-1 to end its Flock contract after reports that out-of-state agencies had accessed the city's camera data — becoming the first California city to do so.

November 20, 2025 · ABC News

Judge dismisses charges against 2 people accused of ramming vehicle of federal agents in Chicago

Charges were dropped against Marimar Martinez and Anthony Ruiz, who'd been labeled "domestic terrorists" by DHS before a judge dismissed the case with prejudice at the government's own request; Martinez was shot five times by the agent involved.

November 20, 2025 · EFF

How cops are using Flock Safety's ALPR network to surveil protesters and activists

The Electronic Frontier Foundation documents more than 50 agencies running searches tied to protest activity, not just crime.

May 29, 2025 · 404 Media

A Texas cop searched license plate cameras nationwide for a woman who got an abortion

An example of the nationwide network being used for out-of-state reproductive-healthcare enforcement, the exact kind of access SB 34 was written to prevent for California data.