Model Right to Privacy Ordinance

Your car shouldn’t be a tracking device for the government.

Across Orange County, cameras are quietly recording where we drive, when we leave, and where we go. Automated license plate readers (ALPRs) like Flock’s capture the plate of every passing car, then store and share that data through a vast network that residents never voted for and cannot see. Once collected, that information can be searched, sold, and handed to outside agencies, including federal immigration enforcement.

That means a trip to a clinic, a house of worship, a protest, or a union meeting can become a permanent record in someone else’s database.

We can stop it. We’re calling on our city council to adopt the Municipal Right to Privacy and Surveillance Control Act, a model ordinance that would:

• Ban ALPRs for city agencies and contractors, and bar the city from buying or using ALPR data from brokers, private networks, or partner agencies to get around the ban
• Prohibit biometric surveillance, including facial recognition, by the city and by businesses operating in places of public accommodation
• Require public approval for any surveillance technology, with a published impact report and a binding use policy before the council can sign off
• Void secrecy-based NDAs that keep surveillance vendor contracts hidden from the public
• Restrict data sharing with federal agencies, out-of-state agencies, and commercial vendors, to the fullest extent state law allows
• Limit police drones to narrow calls for service, with no weapons, no facial recognition, and no general surveillance
• Set clear rules for body cameras, including limits on running footage through AI tools
• Give residents real enforcement power, including the right to sue, protection for whistleblowers, and exclusion of unlawfully gathered data from city proceedings

Why now?

Surveillance technology is spreading faster than the rules meant to govern it. Studies have shown that facial recognition and similar tools misidentify people, and the harms fall hardest on communities of color. Meanwhile, data collected locally can flow to agencies outside our community’s control. Federal courts have recognized in Carpenter v. United States that digital tracking raises serious constitutional concerns, and cities have the power to set stronger protections than the legal minimum.

Privacy isn’t just about having something to hide. It’s about being free to attend a protest, visit a doctor, worship, or organize without being watched.

Sign to tell our city leaders: Adopt the Municipal Right to Privacy and Surveillance Control Act, end the use of Flock and similar ALPR systems, and put surveillance decisions back in the hands of the community.