"History reminds us what can happen when civil liberties are overridden and when safeguards fail. It's incumbent on all of us city councilmembers to be vigilant in protecting both our public safety but also our civil rights."
"The Voice found more than 250 unapproved agencies had conducted roughly 600,000 searches of the city's records from December 2024 through December 2025. That access was only turned off after it was discovered last month."
"There also was a three-month period in late 2024 during which out-of-state agencies could tap into the city's ALPR data. At the time, only one camera had been installed in Mountain View. Canfield acknowledged in a report to the council that this was in violation of city policy and state law."
Mountain View's city council voted unanimously to end its contract with Flock Safety, a surveillance technology company, following significant privacy and data security violations. An investigation revealed that over 250 unapproved law enforcement agencies conducted approximately 600,000 searches of the city's automatic license plate reader data between December 2024 and December 2025, violating city policy requiring individual police approval. Additionally, a three-month period in late 2024 allowed out-of-state agencies to access the data, breaching both city policy and state law prohibiting out-of-state ALPR data sharing. Mountain View joins other California cities including Santa Cruz and Los Altos Hills in terminating contracts with Flock Safety due to these concerns.
#surveillance-technology #data-privacy #license-plate-readers #civil-liberties #government-accountability
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