SFPD audit finds improper federal access to Flock camera data
A routine audit found 299 improper Flock inquiries, after NCRIC queried SFPD’s camera network for agencies barred by California law.
San Francisco police discovered that outside agencies barred by California law had been reaching into the city’s Flock camera network through a regional intelligence hub. A routine compliance audit found 299 improper inquiries over about a year, exposing a gap in the guardrails the department said were in place.
The San Francisco Police Department said the violations came through the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center, which queried the network on behalf of federal and out-of-state agencies. Chief Derrick Lew shut off NCRIC access after the improper searches came to light and opened an internal review. The department said the requests were made simultaneously to between 531 and 763 other law enforcement agencies, a scale that shows how easily a single search can spread across a wider surveillance web.
SFPD said the federal agencies identified in the audit included the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Internal Revenue Service. It said Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security were not identified as direct requesters, though the department added that it could not rule out those agencies obtaining information indirectly through other federal partners, where data sharing is common.
The audit matters because California law bars law enforcement agencies from sharing ALPR data with out-of-state or federal agencies. Attorney General Rob Bonta reaffirmed that prohibition in a notice to state police agencies two years ago, making the latest San Francisco finding less a legal ambiguity than an enforcement problem. The rules exist on paper, but the access controls and audits are what determine whether those rules have real force.
The breach is at least the second recent Flock-related failure tied to San Francisco. Separate reporting showed that out-of-state agencies accessed SFPD data 1.6 million times between 2024 and 2025, and earlier reporting in July 2025 said San Francisco and Oakland police may have shared license-plate data with federal law enforcement agencies including the FBI, DEA and ATF. In February 2026, the Oakland-based firm Gibbs Mura filed a class-action lawsuit against Flock Safety, accusing the company of sharing California drivers’ data with out-of-state law enforcement and the federal government in violation of state law.
SFPD has defended Flock as a crime-fighting tool, saying it helps investigators identify suspects more efficiently and has contributed to a historic drop in violent and property crime despite staffing shortages. But the May audit suggests the central question is not whether the cameras can help solve crimes. It is whether San Francisco can actually stop that data from flowing where California law says it should not go.
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