Corona runs a city-wide license-plate surveillance network. California already runs one — CLETS — with mandatory public audits, felony penalties for misuse, and legislative oversight. Corona's Flock system has none of that. We're not asking the city to take our word for anything. We're asking it to meet the same standard — in writing.
In 2026 the Corona Police Department released a Flock "Sharing, Access & Audit Controls" FAQ. We read it closely. Several of its reassurances don't survive the public record — and the most important one is something the FAQ openly admits.
"Disabled" is a setting, not a guarantee. In Oxnard and Ventura County that exact setting was silently overridden by Flock's own back end — Ventura County had "National Lookup" off since June 2023, yet a vendor configuration error produced 364,000 out-of-state queries without the agency's knowledge. And a federal subpoena or National Security Letter served on Flock's corporate HQ bypasses the setting entirely — Flock may be legally barred from even telling Corona PD it happened.
This is the whole problem. An audit no one outside the department can see is not accountability — it's "trust us." Under CLETS, misuse must be reported to the California Attorney General and is subject to public oversight. If Corona's controls are as strong as the FAQ claims, there is no reason not to publish the audits — or independent summaries of them.
This conflates what the city pays to view (plate data) with what the Flock system captures and classifies on its back end. Flock markets "Vehicle Fingerprint" — make, model, color, type, and attributes like roof racks and bumper stickers — generated by machine learning without a plate. That data already exists in Flock's database; the city could enable more of it for a fee, and legal process to Flock could reach it. "We only look at plates" is not "the system only captures plates."
These are self-audits the public can't verify, and in network audits the sensitive fields from outside agencies are masked even from Corona PD. It was Flock's own vendor audit — not the city — that found 203 inactive user accounts with access. "Regular audits" with no independent review and no public disclosure is exactly the gap CLETS was built to close.
Ventura County's 364,000 out-of-state queries happened without the agency's knowledge, through a change on the vendor's side. Being able to revoke access doesn't help when you were never told the access occurred.
Source: City of Corona "Flock Sharing, Access & Audit Controls FAQ" and "Corona Police Department Policy," 2026; Oxnard PD press release 2/27/26; Ventura County Sheriff audit findings; Flock Safety "Vehicle Fingerprint" product materials.
The accountability we're asking for isn't hypothetical — California has run it for decades. CLETS, the state's license-plate and criminal-justice network, is governed by statute, enforced by felony penalties, and subject to mandatory public audits. Corona chose a private vendor with none of those guardrails. Here is the gap, line by line.
| CLETS California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System | Flock Safety Private vendor ALPR network | |
|---|---|---|
| Who runs it |
State Agency
Managed by the California Department of Justice — a government agency accountable to the legislature, the Attorney General, and the public. |
Private Company
Managed by Flock Group Inc., a venture-backed company valued at $7.5 billion. Accountable to investors, not residents. |
| Who can access it |
Strictly Controlled
Authorized law enforcement and criminal justice personnel only, operating on a strict need-to-know / right-to-know basis defined by state law. |
Poorly Audited
203 inactive user accounts discovered by Flock's own vendor audit — not by Corona PD. No warrant required to query data. Federal access occurred in Oxnard, Ventura County, and San Francisco despite local "California only" settings. |
| Penalty for unauthorized access |
Felony Exposure
Government Code 6200 and Penal Code 11141–11143 impose felony penalties: 16 months to 3 years in state prison, fines up to $10,000, termination, and loss of professional licenses. DOJ and AG investigate misuse. |
Press Release
No criminal penalties for unauthorized access caused by vendor configuration errors. Flock "took full responsibility" for the Oxnard breach with no legal consequence. The city bears the legal risk, not the vendor. |
| Audit trail |
Mandatory and Public
Agencies must report misuse annually to the California Attorney General. Audit records are subject to public oversight. |
Exists but Hidden
Audit logs exist but Corona PD classifies monthly records as investigative documents potentially exempt from public records requests. In network audits, sensitive fields from outside agencies are masked even from the local department. |
| Federal agency access |
Controlled via Law
Access governed by California and federal statute. Unauthorized sharing is itself a criminal offense. |
Bypassed by Vendor
Ventura County Sheriff had "National Lookup" disabled since June 2023. A vendor configuration error silently re-enabled it — resulting in 364,000 out-of-state queries without the agency's knowledge. |
| Council / public oversight |
Legislative Oversight
Governed by state statute. Any changes to access rules, retention, or data sharing require legislative action or AG guidance. |
Bypassed in Corona
The Third Amendment to Corona's Flock contract was signed with no council vote and no city attorney review — confirmed in writing by Management Analyst Amanda Andrade. The $641,400 Axon Fusus/drone contract was signed by City Manager Jacob Ellis with no visible council authorization. |
| Data retention |
Defined by Statute
Retention policies set by California law, not by contract negotiation with a private vendor. |
Contract-Defined
Generally 30 days per Corona PD's FAQ, with supervisor-approved extensions. No independent verification that extensions are tracked or limited. |
| When it goes wrong |
Officers Face Prosecution
Employees have been fired, prosecuted, and forced to resign. The DOJ investigates. Criminal charges apply regardless of whether the officer profited from the misuse. |
Vendor Apologizes
Flock issues a statement, promises it won't happen again, and continues operating under the same contract. The city — and residents — absorb the risk with no contractual remedy. |
Sources: CA Govt Code 6200; Penal Code 11141–11143; Oxnard PD press release 2/27/26; Ventura County Sheriff audit findings; Corona CPRA documents C000352-032326 and C000411-040626; Amanda Andrade written admission re: Third Amendment; EFF Atlas of Surveillance; CalMatters ALPR investigation 6/25.
This coalition started when a parent with 20 years of IT-security experience noticed Flock cameras lining the route from home to their children's school — logging the family into a corporate database every morning. The fix isn't complicated, and it isn't anti-police. It's the same accountability California already requires of CLETS.
We are asking the City of Corona to bring its Flock surveillance program up to that standard — and to put it in writing, in the binding contract, where a vendor's revocable policy can't quietly change it.
Each ask maps directly to a row in the comparison above: a guardrail CLETS has, and Flock currently doesn't.
Flock Safety markets itself as a crime-fighting tool. What it actually is: a private company building a permanent, city-wide record of every resident's daily movements — then monetizing access to that data.
Every Flock camera photographs passing vehicles and transmits plate numbers, timestamps, GPS locations, and travel directions to Flock's corporate cloud. That data is not stored by the Corona Police Department. It is stored by a private company, on private servers, under Flock's terms — not ours.
Residents have no rights under California public records law against a private company's database. The city handed Flock a surveillance monopoly on our streets and gave up control of what happens next.
The documented record shows exactly what happens next: federal agencies get access. Sanctuary protections get bypassed. And Flock's own CEO admitted the company enabled national federal access to cameras without the knowledge of the cities that paid for them.
| What Flock Collects | Status |
|---|---|
| License plate number | Always collected |
| Date & time of travel | Always collected |
| Camera GPS location | Always collected |
| Direction of travel | Always collected |
| Data retention limit | Not publicly disclosed |
| Federal access audit logs | Not publicly disclosed |
| Who has queried Corona's data | Not publicly disclosed |
Watch — Flock Safety Explained
"Every morning I drove my kids to school, our family was entered into a corporate database — not as suspects, just as residents going about their lives. There was no policy limiting what happens to that data, no oversight, and no way to opt out. That's when this coalition started." — Coalition Founder, Corona Resident · 20 Years IT Security Experience
Palantir Technologies is both an investor in and a primary integration partner for Flock Safety. When you understand what Palantir is — and what its CEO openly admits it is trying to do — the stakes of these cameras in our city become much clearer.
Karp also acknowledged the technology is "dangerous societally" while arguing it must be built anyway. This is the worldview of the company holding a $30 million federal contract with ICE, embedded in the Pentagon, and designed to ingest Flock's license plate data from cities like ours.
These are not neutral tools. The infrastructure connecting Corona's streets to Palantir's data fusion platform is being built by people using it as a political instrument. Our city is funding it.
Flock cameras are the data-collection layer of a broader surveillance infrastructure designed to feed into Palantir's analytics platform — which connects to federal law enforcement and immigration systems.
Palantir holds a $30 million contract with ICE to consolidate sensitive personal data — biometrics, geolocation, personal identifiers — for near real-time immigration enforcement. Flock is the front door to that system.
Oxnard PD set their Flock portal to "California only" — then discovered federal agencies had been searching their data anyway via a vendor-enabled back-end override. 5 million queries on just 19 cameras in 2025. Oxnard suspended Flock in February 2026. The "California only" setting was theater.
Where Your Data Goes
These aren't hypotheticals. Every case below is documented. If it happened in San Francisco and Mountain View, it can happen — or may already be happening — in Corona.
Logs show at least 19 searches of the SFPD Flock database for ICE fugitives and detention cases — by out-of-state agencies — despite San Francisco's sanctuary city status.
Oxnard PD set their portal to "California only" access — then discovered federal agencies searched their data anyway via a vendor-enabled override. 5 million queries on 19 cameras in 2025. OPD suspended Flock in February 2026.
At least 30 localities — including Santa Cruz, CA — have canceled Flock contracts citing unauthorized federal access and zero community oversight. Corona has taken no action.
This changes when enough residents show up — at meetings, at city hall, in public comment, and in conversation with their neighbors.
Join our growing coalition. We meet monthly to share updates, coordinate council appearances, and prepare records requests. No experience needed.
Public comment is the most direct path to elected officials. We go as a group with prepared talking points. The goal: make every council member unable to claim they weren't told.
California's Public Records Act lets us demand the Flock contract, the monthly audit records, and any federal data-sharing agreements. We'll walk you through filing a CPRA request — and what to do when the city claims they're exempt.
Most residents don't know these cameras exist — or that their data may already have been accessed by federal agencies. Share this page. Have the conversation.
Volunteer-run coalition of Corona residents. Whether you want to attend a meeting, file records requests, or just stay informed — we want to hear from you.
By the numbers — what's at stake for Corona residents.