Voice of OC75%
Will Costa Mesa Ditch License Plate Surveillance Cameras After Cop Stalking Scandal? 50%
By Angelina Hicks34%
7/21/2026, 5:58:00 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 28 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Authority, Anecdotal, and Appeal to Emotion, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 26.2% saturation with 288 hits. Analysis detected 1,897 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,101 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 50.3% and a BS Rank of 50% (10,961 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 50.10% of the article peer group.
A growing coalition of Costa Mesa residents have been speaking out against automated license plate readers, used to track vehicles and potential criminals, after a police officer used the cameras to stalk women, including romantic rivals, an ex-girlfriend and his wife.
The cameras — commonly referred to as Flock cameras since that’s one of the most common operators of the devices — photograph passing vehicles, read the license plates and compare information against law enforcement databases.
Costa Mesa has a contract with Flock to operate the 46 cameras found across town.
They’re strategically positioned to monitor entry and exit points throughout the city and aid criminal investigations, according to the staff report included with the agenda for the city council’s meeting tonight.
The cameras are also used to recover stolen vehicles, apprehend wanted suspects and locate missing persons.
But residents are voicing a growing resentment toward the cameras, citing concern about the privacy of the data scanned by the cameras and who’s accessing the information.
“In February of 2026, members of the Community expressed comments at City Council meetings regarding security breaches and misuse of the Flock Public Safety system,” reads the staff report.
“Based on the concerns expressed by members of the public, the Costa Mesa Police Department will address community concerns regarding the use of Flock technology and the safeguards in place to protect privacy.”
Tonight, city council members are slated to review a presentation regarding their contract with Flock in a public meeting after calls from residents to end the contract and remove the cameras.
But city staff members are recommending the council continue their contract with Flock.
“Based on the demonstrated success of the Costa Mesa Police Department’s Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) program, staff recommends that the City Council approve the continued use of Flock Safety ALPR system,” reads the staff report.
An Automated License Plate Reader in Costa Mesa off Harbor Boulevard on July 17, 2026.
Credit: ANGELINA HICKS, Voice of OC
The staff report continues, saying the Flock cameras are extremely effective in reducing crime locally.
“While concerns are understandable, given recent incidents statewide, it is important to place them in the context of how and why the Costa Mesa Police Department began using the Flock Safety system,” reads the staff report.
“Over the last 15 years, law enforcement agencies have employed Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) technology to locate stolen vehicles and solve crimes involving the use of automobiles.
The evolution of ALPR technology has made these products more affordable and prevalent among law enforcement.”
According to the city’s website, the cameras alert the city’s police department when they scan vehicles that are listed on statewide criminal databases and help police apprehend criminals in situations like child abductions.
The city’s website says the cameras also can be used as an investigative tool to search for vehicles involved in criminal activity after the fact, like when a vehicle flees the scene of a traffic coalition or if a wanted criminal is fleeing the scene of a crime.
Flock utilizes artificial intelligence to analyze photos of vehicles and capture data, which has also been the subject of criticism as innocent people are falsely accused of crimes when the system gets facts wrong.
Flock claims their cameras capture license plates accurately 93% of the time .
The Costa Mesa City Council meeting on March 17, 2026.
Credit: ERIKA TAYLOR, Voice of OC
Much of the distaste over Flock cameras stems from a stalking scandal involving an officer from the Costa Mesa Police Department.
Robert Jay Josett, 35, was accused of using the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System database beginning in 2023 to make 13 inquiries on people and vehicles not related to his job, including his mistress, someone she dated, and his own wife, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office .
Josett was also accused of accessing information from Flock cameras and using it to locate his mistress’ vehicle and the vehicles of her romantic interests in order to follow them to their locations.
He continued to illegally access data from the Flock cameras in 2024 after he lost his job at the police department, according to the DA’s office, and he used the information to find the address of his mistress’ new boyfriend in Torrance.
Josett pleaded guilty in April to three misdemeanors, including unauthorized computer access and fraud related to illegally accessing the police department’s license plate reader system.
Costa Mesa has a public transparency portal for their license plate reader program.
It lists the locations for all 46 cameras in town.
It costs the city $151,800 annually to run the cameras.
The debate in Costa Mesa comes after leaders in the City of Orange voted to renew an over $375,000 contract with Flock earlier this year.
Also earlier this year, Anaheim City Council members voted unanimously to pay $736,000 to buy 72 more automated license plate readers.
[ Read : OC Cities Look to Beef Up Surveillance Amid Privacy Concerns ]
Costa Mesa residents have been speaking at council meetings and writing emails for months asking leaders to ditch the contract with Flock.
“This FLOCK system tracks our daily movements and stores them in a database, to be searched on demand without reasonable suspicion or warrants,” Costa Mesa resident Priscilla Rocco wrote in an email to the council, dated June 15.
“This is a massive invasion of privacy and a waste of taxpayer funds.”
Others say the stalking scandal is a glaring reason why the cameras must go.
“As a member of the community who is greatly disturbed at the amount of dangerous driving and would love more accountability in keeping our streets safe, I do not trust this private company due to its many failings across this country,” Costa Mesa resident Kathryn Hoist wrote in an email to the council, dated June 16, “including illegally detaining citizens based on Flock footage that used AI to ID people incorrectly and the company’s track record for lying about how data is stored.”
“In our own city, an officer on leave used Flock camera footage to stalk his own wife and mistress.
We cannot trust the words that any representative from Flock says because their own CEO has lied about security measures within their technology.”
Angelina Hicks is the Voice of OC Collegiate News Service Editor.
Contact her at ahicks@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @angelinahicks13.
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