On July 21, 2026, Costa Mesa’s City Council will be voting on whether or not to cancel its contract with the company that is enabling mass surveillance in Costa Mesa: Flock Safety. They are one of the companies that provides Costa Mesa with ai-powered surveillance technology. Costa Mesa is under contract with Flock to provide 46 Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) throughout the city. Costa Mesa is the first city in Orange County to agendize a vote to terminate their relationship with Flock Safety. Your signing of this petition and support at the Council Meeting on July 21 is crucial to stop the growing mass surveillance ecosystem.

There are currently 80,000-100,000 Flock ALPR cameras active in nearly all states across the US, capturing more than 20 billion vehicle reads every month. Every license plate that passes by a Flock ALPR is captured indiscriminately. Ai detects unique features of each vehicle like bumper stickers, damage, or vehicle mounted accessories to create a searchable vehicle signature. No reasonable suspicion, probable cause, or judicial warrant is required. All of this easily searchable data goes to privately controlled Flock databases. Customers, like Costa Mesa PD, can easily use this tool to track our movements both in real time and historically.

Dragnet mass surveillance does not make us safer. Aggregating our data into a privatized AI-powered mass surveillance ecosystem that is retained indefinitely, with no public oversight, backed by tech billionaire investors with a stated anti-democratic purpose, is not public safety.

Flock’s ALPR technology is designed to enable data sharing across jurisdictions, creating pathways for access by out-of-state and federal agencies including the Department of Homeland Security. Even when cities do not intend to share information directly with federal agencies, using a third-party networked system like Flock can allow external agencies to query local data. These are real and well-documented risks of indirect access by outside agencies across the country, which have led to over 80 cities canceling/suspending their use of Flock.

The threat to the residents of Costa Mesa is not hypothetical. Abuse of the system has already happened in our city. A former CMPD officer has been prosecuted after stalking women and their romantic interests using the Flock ALPR system and California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (CLETS). Concerned residents had to review data from other cities to uncover unlawful searches for federal agencies being allowed on the CMPD Flock system. In spite of this, Costa Mesa Police Department continues to obfuscate how they are using the Flock ALPR system. Public record requests for audit data made in good faith and in accordance with the law have been denied. Dozens of other cities in the region provided their records without issue. This refusal to take accountability and provide transparency is unacceptable. The City is allowing our privacy rights and civil liberties to be circumvented by a tech company with a documented record of deception and secrecy.  

Make your voice heard by signing this petition and speaking at the Costa Mesa City Council Meeting on July 21 to urge the Council to Get the Flock out of Costa Mesa and instead prioritize community-based approaches to public safety that respect the rights, dignity, and safety of all residents.