Mountain View suspends license plate readers; agencies accessed flock camera data without consent

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (KGO) — Crime-fighting cameras are all over the Bay Area, but now one city is shutting them off. How one wrong click opened up drivers’ data to federal agents.

Now, the city of Mountain View is shutting down their license plate reader system, for now.

City officials say an audit discovered that for several months in 2024 – multiple federal agencies accessed data from a Flock license plate reader.

The agencies didn’t include Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

But a representative with the Electronic Frontier Foundation said this is concerning.

“What we’re seeing is that license plate reader data is playing with fire,” said Adam Schwartz, Privacy Litigation Director, Electronic Frontier Foundation.

MORE: Surveillance, privacy concerns raised in debate over Flock cameras in Oakland

The city of Mountain View said there was a ‘nationwide’ search setting that was turned on – without permission.

“We have a state law that was enacted in 2014 called Senate Bill 34 and it says police agencies in California cannot give their license plate data to federal agencies,” Schwartz said. “But what we’re seeing here is that sometimes, the wrong box gets checked.”

On Monday, the Mountain View chief of police posted a message to the community. He said effective immediately the city’s flock cameras will be turned off – citing he no longer has ‘confidence’ in the vendor.

He’s deferring to the city council for further direction.

“What was Flock’s response to all of this? Why was this back door built in, in the first place? Do we have legal remedies?,” said Mountain View Mayor Emily Ann Ramos.

MORE: How SFPD’s new investigation center is ‘catching criminals faster’ using 400 cameras, drones

Last week, Santa Clara County Supervisor Betty Duong pushed for a more widespread pause on flock cameras.

“And during that time, I’ve directed our County Council and our administration to do a full scale investigation into what Flock has been doing. And if at the end of the day, the question is, can we trust them,” Duong said.

In a statement to ABC7 News, a Flock spokesperson said:

“Sharing settings within Flock are always under the control of the agency. We are proud of the positive impact Mountain View PD has made with our technology. And we hope to resolve the concerns of the Police Department directly with them.”