Just three weeks after the Santa Barbara City Council voted to not renew its contract with Flock Safety, the city is grappling with the future use of automated license-plate-reader technology.
The council voted 5-2 to not implement a new automated license-plate-reader (ALPR) system until after a thorough review and revision of the city and Police Department ALPR policy.
Tuesday’s meeting was a follow-up to the Aug. 25 meeting, when the Santa Barbara City Council decided not to renew its contract with Flock Safety or enter into a new contract with Verkada.
This means that the Police Department won’t be able to use ALPR technology to aid investigations until the city reviews its policy, which is why Mayor Randy Rowse and Councilman Mike Jordan voted against the decision.
Jordan again argued that those against ALPRs may feel differently if their loved ones were a victim of a serious crime that needed to be solved.
Jordan and Rowse did agree that some language in the city’s ALPR policy needed to be “cleaned up” to better align with state law.
Councilwoman Meagan Harmon said she wasn’t willing to enter into a new contract if the city didn’t have a strong system in place to ensure the safe use of the technology.
“I don’t think we have those systems in place,” Harmon said.
Councilman Oscar Gutierrez admitted that he was conflicted on this issue, but would only support the use of an ALPR system if it was an “in-house” system and if Indivisible Santa Barbara helped to monitor the use of the system.
“I, too, have heard from my community members that they don’t want this, but I’ve also had to speak with the victims of crime directly, asking me why couldn’t the city do more to help prevent or apprehend the people responsible,” Gutierrez said.
Community members continued to advocate for the city to revise its policy on automated license plate readers, arguing that the consequences of surveillance outweigh any benefits.
“The only way to ensure our data and privacy are secure is to not collect it in the first place,” said Ana Garcia. “If we allow the use of these cameras to continue, we are trading a whole lot of our civil rights for a whole lot of nothing in return.”
Multiple members of the public referenced a study of 216 police departments that found that the use of ALPR cameras improved the recovery time of stolen vehicles by only seven hours.
Others referenced how ALPRs have been used to look for a woman who had an abortion across state lines, been used by immigration enforcement officials, and have been used by law enforcement officers to stalk romantic partners.
Police Chief Kelly Gordon defended the department’s policy on ALPRs, specifically saying state law prohibits the department from sharing data with federal agencies.
If other agencies do want specific data from the Police Department, Gordon said, they have to have a specific data request for a specific investigation.
“I understand there’s privacy concerns,” Gordon said. “I also know this technology led to the identification and successful prosecution of someone who murdered someone in cold blood, who I sat with and told this individual’s mom that their son had died going to the gym in the middle of the afternoon.”
However, Larry Barrett with Indivisible Santa Barbara noted that the Police Department’s current policy is inconsistent with assurances Gordon made about ALPR usage.
Specifically, the policy states that the department “shall provide” data to a federal agency for criminal investigations.
However, this is against state law, so City Attorney John Doimas said even though that’s in the city policy, the city can’t share the data with federal agencies.
Barrett also noted that while Gordon said the Verkada system would give the department complete control of the data, the city policy states that data should be managed by the vendors.
He also noted that the policy calls for data to be stored for one year, while Gordon previously said data was purged after 30 days unless saved as evidence.
“It really brings me no joy to say this,” Barrett said. “Because I have the greatest respect for city administration and city police. But the policy is not consistent with the assurances you’ve given here in this room.”
He noted that this highlights the need for a thorough review of the city’s policy before contracting with a new ALPR system.
The police department had used 12 Flock automated license-plate-recognition cameras since late 2023 to locate stolen cars, identify suspect vehicles, and enhance public safety.
Specifically, the technology was used to identify suspects in a series of jewelry store robberies in 2025, a stabbing and attempted homicide in 2025, and an assault in 2025, Gordon said in August.
Additionally, since implementing the technology, there has been an 11% increase in solved violent crime cases and a 9% increase in solved hit-and-run cases.
The city will undertake a review of the city’s ALPR policy, but there is no timeline yet for how long that process will take.
City Administrator Kelly McAdoo originally said that it would take at least a year, given staff’s current workloads, but the council indicated that it wanted a revised policy quicker than that.
