Overview
- Filed in Santa Clara County, the suit names the City of San Jose, Police Chief Paul Joseph, and Mayor Matt Mahan, and is brought on behalf of SIREN and CAIR-CA.
- Plaintiffs argue officers and outside agencies search the ALPR system without warrants to reconstruct people’s movements, in violation of California’s constitutional privacy protections.
- San Jose’s network has at least 474 Flock cameras with data kept for one year, producing 361,494,941 scans in 2024 with roughly 0.2% matching hotlists, according to city figures cited in the complaint.
- Between June 5, 2024, and June 17, 2025, SJPD made 261,711 database queries and the shared system was searched 3,965,519 times overall, the lawsuit states.
- The police department declined comment due to pending litigation, Mayor Mahan defended the system’s safeguards and investigative value, and Flock did not immediately comment.