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Resident urges Fountain Valley to drop or tighten oversight of Flock license-plate readers
Summary
A resident told the council that Flock automated license-plate readers installed around Fountain Valley collect and store vehicle data nationally and asked the council to remove the system or impose stronger oversight, citing Fourth Amendment and mass-surveillance concerns.
Fountain Valley —6 Sept. 25, 2025 —6 During public comment at the City Council meeting, resident Dan Stewart urged the city to remove automated license-plate readers installed by private vendor Flock or impose additional oversight, saying the system scans and stores vehicle movements to a nationwide cloud accessible to law enforcement agencies.
Stewart, who identified himself as a 25-year resident and a software engineer, said the readers do more than check plates against hotlists; he alleged the system uses AI to analyze vehicle travel patterns and retains data that can be queried by law enforcement agencies months after collection. "This company is scanning our cars, features like our license plates, bumper stickers, damage, and it's storing them to a nationwide cloud database for searching," Stewart said during his allotted three minutes.
Stewart asked the council to consider removing the system outright or to adopt a local oversight policy similar to actions taken by other cities. He referenced a Freedom of Information report he said showed regional law-enforcement access and raised constitutional concerns about warrantless tracking of individuals.
Council did not take action during the meeting; the mayor thanked the speaker and noted materials were available online. Stewart offered to share additional information with council via email.
