FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
San Diego, CA –June 5, 2025– San Diego Community Leaders do not want Trump's draconian location surveillance technology. We do not trust ICE with this data. We call on our elected officials to protect all of our communities from federal overreach. Labor, immigrant, Black and LGBTQ leaders and organizations call on the City Council to pull the Flock funded Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) funding and invest in community programs.
Last Friday, HSI agents invaded South Park in full tactical gear to raid workers and attack local community members who stood to protect their immigrant neighbors. Federal agencies like ICE, HSI, and CBP depend on surveillance data collected from ALPR systems around the country. The Trump Administration has gone rogue, subverting laws, due process, and morality. City leaders have come out in full condemnation of these raids against immigrants. We call on these same leaders to pull funding from ALPR cameras that share data with out-of-state agencies.
Statements from local leaders
"ALPR furthers Trump's fascism and hurts workers. The San Diego Imperial Counties Labor Council, representing over two hundred thousand workers and 130 unions, has also called on the City Council to turn off and remove Flock ALPR systems and ensure all data is deleted." San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, AFL-CIO
"We are deeply concerned that ALPR data can potentially be accessed and utilized by federal immigration agencies to deport immigrant community members. City Council has a moral obligation to pull funding from ALPRs and instead put it into resources that protect and welcome immigrants, including the Office of Immigrant Affairs.” Erin Tsurumoto Grassi Associate Director, Alliance San Diego
“By prioritizing surveillance and ALPR technology over community priorities like parks and libraries, our council is not only compromising library time and the safety of playgrounds for San Diego children, we are directly putting our families in harm's way and in the crosshairs of ICE which is tapping into this technology to further Trump‘s agenda.” Homayra Yusufi, Senior Policy Strategist, Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans
“ALPR is unregulated and alarming. ALPR threatens community safety and our democracy. For the City of San Diego to fund ALPR is to be complicit with authoritarianism and violates our constitutional freedoms. ALPR does not promote community safety, and given current budget challenges, the City Council needs to suspend ALPR funding and dedicate those resources to the services that help our children and families thrive, such as parks and libraries.” Diana Ross, Executive Director, Mid-City CAN
“The City of San Diego plans to continue spending millions on Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs). Like other mass surveillance systems, ALPR makes us less safe because it can be misused by police to violate our right to privacy and other civil rights, often by targeting Black, brown, immigrant, and working-class communities. Instead of continuing to use our limited resources on this harmful and expensive program, the city should put the money into the things that support healthy, thriving, and safe communities, things like parks, libraries, and safety net services that help us take care of one another.” Kyra Greene, Executive Director for the Center on Policy Initiatives
“The UC San Diego Faculty Association is against ALPR because as Trump's fascist agenda attacks universities, free thought, and international students, ALPR terrorizes our community." UC San Diego Faculty Association-American Association of University Professors (SDFA-AAUP)
“The network of surveillance infrastructure implemented across San Diego, against the recommendations from the Privacy Advisory Board, put all of us at risk from federal overreach by the Trump administration and their anti immigrant policies. We call on the City Council to protect its constituents by pulling funding from the current ALPR system.” Khalid Alexander, President Pillars of the Community
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Contact:
info@panasd.org | (619) 363-6939
About TRUST Coalition
In 2019, the Transparent and Responsible Use of Surveillance Technology San Diego Coalition (TRUST SD) formed with 30+ participating community organizations to advocate for historically marginalized populations impacted by over-policing and surveillance technologies. TRUST SD has gained significant momentum by amplifying the pressing concerns surrounding privacy, surveillance accountability, and the overwhelming influence of City and federal funds on Big Tech-driven projects at the expense of community-led initiatives. In 2023, TRUST SD successfully mobilized efforts to defund Shotspotter, shut down thousands of street lights, an invasive audio surveillance platform, and played a pivotal role in championing the Surveillance Oversight Ordinance (TRUST Ordinance) in San Diego. This groundbreaking initiative also led to the establishment of the Privacy Advisory Board (PAB), marking a significant victory for privacy and oversight.