They met at 5 p.m., the hour the City Council’s Public Safety Committee was to have taken up the cameras. The city posted a notice on Aug. 12 canceling that meeting for lack of a quorum. The committee’s earlier April 15 meeting was canceled as well.
The rally was organized by a group called Pasadena Privacy under the banner “DeFlock Pasadena.” The group wants the council to disable and remove all Flock cameras in the city, cancel the Flock contract, decline any replacement vendor, and redirect the money to community programs.
Organizers say the contract comes up in September. Information is posted at pasadenaprivacy.org and deflockpasadena.org.
The Police Department operates 61 fixed cameras and has requested 11 more, which would bring the total to 72, according to a July 2026 review by Independent Police Auditor Teresa Magula.
Yadi Younse, who identified herself as a member of Pasadena Privacy, opened the event.
“These are actually AI powered surveillance cameras that capture a lot more information than just our vehicle license plates,” Younse said. The data is aggregated into systems that collect information on residents never suspected of a crime, she said.
Vice Mayor Jess Rivas, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, told the crowd she opposes any license plate reader system operating in the city. She said a deployment that began narrowly around the Rose Bowl over terrorism concerns has grown citywide, with the police department pushing for more. No government should hold that kind of record on its own residents, she said.
“It’s unnecessary and it’s creepy as hell,” Rivas said.
The city released a statement about the rally.
“The use of technology in law enforcement and in society in general has its supporters and detractors. Pasadena is always open to hearing both sides of every issue, as it makes us a better city. While there are negative stories about the use of technology elsewhere, we can point to the use of this technology locally to solve a number of crimes. Nonetheless, we encourage those critical of this technology to continue to raise their voices so that we can understand and address their important concerns about privacy and misuse of technology. We place the well being and safety of our residents first and foremost and will use every tool reasonable available to protect our residents while safeguarding and honoring privacy rights.”
City records date the current Flock program to a contract the council approved July 17, 2023, with Flock Group Inc., for cameras at 17 intersections. The Police Department’s staff report described the purchase as advancing its mission of increasing public safety through technology.
Brandon D. Lamar, president of the Pasadena branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said the outcome of the cameras’ usage falls hardest on Black and brown residents, who he said are stopped by police at disproportionate rates.
“Why do we have to do business with somebody who’s coming out and calling us terrorists simply because we want to protect our black and brown neighbors from inevitable policing that is likely to devastate families and rip them apart?” he asked.
Mohammad Tajsar, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California who works opposing government surveillance, told the crowd he is against any deployment of automated license plate readers, or ALPRs, in Pasadena or the surrounding region.
“These guys are not our friends,” Tajsar said of Flock’s leadership, alleging that the company had cast surveillance opponents as sympathetic to violent crime.
“I don’t want cameras in Pasadena,” Tajsar said. “I want counselors. I don’t want surveillance in Pasadena. I want science teachers at my kids’ schools.”
Companies selling the technology to police are driven by profit rather than public safety, he said. “These people do not want us safe. These people want our money.”
Police auditor Magula’s review reached different conclusions on one of the rally’s central claims. She found no evidence camera locations were chosen by Pasadena police on the basis of race or ethnicity. She also found the cameras are not evenly distributed, and that at least two Pasadena districts have none.
Flock’s pole-mounted cameras photograph the rear of every passing vehicle and log the plate number, color, make and model. Software the company has marketed as Vehicle Signature uses artificial intelligence to catalog further details, including bumper stickers and body damage, allowing investigators to search by vehicle characteristics without a visible plate. Police use the network to alert officers when a flagged vehicle passes a camera, and to let detectives search stored records after a crime.
Wednesday’s rally was part of a National Week of Action Against ALPRs organized by the group DeFlock, running Aug. 16 to 22.
The committee that would decide the contract’s future appears split. Minutes of its May 20, 2026, meeting record Rivas supporting Flock termination without a replacement vendor; Councilmember Steve Madison supporting continued use with adjustments within the law; Councilmember Tyron Hampton favoring a new vendor whose system would collect data for the city’s use only absent a warrant; and Councilmember Justin Jones raising concerns about data sharing with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and about camera concentration in Council District 3.
The Public Safety Committee meets on the third Wednesday of each month. Its next regular meeting falls on Sept. 16.
Get our daily Pasadena newspaper in your email box. Free.
Get all the latest Pasadena news, more than 10 fresh stories daily, 7 days a week at 7 a.m.
