Our streets. Our rights.
DeFlock Pleasanton.
Catch the bad guys. Don't track anybody else.
DeFlock Pleasanton opposes indiscriminate automated tracking of people who are not suspected of a crime. Police should have effective tools to investigate actual suspects without building a searchable history of everybody else's movements.
This is an advocacy site with a point of view. Its factual claims should still be checkable, so we link the source beside each one.
What are Flock cameras and ALPRs?
ALPR stands for Automated License Plate Reader: a camera system that captures license plates and vehicle information and turns those observations into searchable data. Pleasanton Police says it now uses Flock Safety ALPR technology exclusively, runs retroactive searches to solve crimes after they occur, and uses real-time alerts on hot-listed vehicles.
Pleasanton at a Glance
Each figure is tied to the dated record linked in its row. Where a record does not state a number, we say so rather than guess. Last checked against those records on 19 October 2026.
Documented stated in the record (click to open it) · Calculated our arithmetic from documented figures (hover or tap to see it) · Unknown not established by any record we have. Found an error or a better primary source? Tell us.
| Measure | Current / latest verified record | Future projection / status in the record |
|---|---|---|
| Flock / ALPR cameras | Documented · July 2025 memo ↗ 38 ALPR cameras in the 2025 Flock agreement. The original staff report said 54; the City's 9 July 2025 memo corrected it to 38. Documented · PPD ALPR page ↗ The Police Department's ALPR page lists 34 current or planned camera locations as of 24 Sept 2026. Documented · Flock portal ↗ Pleasanton PD's Flock transparency portal (updated 19 Oct 2026) lists 47 total cameras, which it describes as "LPR and other cameras." Unknown how many of the 47 read plates. Calculated Put another way: Pleasanton has nearly 215 centerline miles of paved roads. At 38 cameras, that's roughly one ALPR for every 5.7 miles (9,958 yards) of Pleasanton roads. City street-mileage source → | The July 2026 memo says the Flock replacement was "largely completed" and that the last three Vigilant cameras were deactivated on 8 July 2026. No record we have states a final future camera count. |
| Vehicles recorded | Documented · Flock portal ↗ 762,704 unique vehicles detected in the 30 days before 19 Oct 2026, with 229 search sessions in the same 30 days. Calculated About 3,300 unique vehicles recorded for every search session. | Not published as an annual figure. More on the denominator ↓ |
| Flock contract | Documented ceiling · Council agenda ↗ Documented · Council minutes ↗ A five-year agreement with Flock Safety, not to exceed $639,760, approved 5–0 on the 15 July 2025 Consent Calendar (Item 15). That is a maximum, not money spent. Unknown Actual payments to Flock to date. | The record sets a ceiling over five years. It does not project spending by year. |
| Retention / searchable travel history | Documented · Policy 446 ↗ Documented · PPD ALPR page ↗ Documented · Flock portal ↗ 30 days. Policy 446.5 (manual revised 9 July 2026) says ALPR data should be stored for a maximum of 30 days, then purged unless it is, or may become, evidence. The ALPR page says data is purged automatically after 30 days, and the Flock portal lists 30 days. | Flock announced a seven-day recommended default in August 2026. As of 19 Oct 2026, Pleasanton's portal still lists 30 days. |
| Who can access the data | Documented · Flock portal ↗ The Flock portal lists the organizations granted access to Pleasanton's data. Calculated 160 organizations on 19 Oct 2026, by our count of that list. | Policy 446.8 says the Department will enter into sharing agreements only with California law enforcement agencies. The policy states no future list. |
The contract price is not the Total Cost of Ownership.
The published figure of up to $639,760 over five years describes the Flock agreement identified in the records cited above. It should not be interpreted as the complete cost to Pleasanton taxpayers of operating an ALPR surveillance program.
Operating the program also consumes resources such as personnel time for administration, monitoring, investigations and dispatch; police and IT management; networking and communications; servers, storage and other IT infrastructure; cybersecurity; facilities and real estate; electricity and cooling; maintenance; training; records management; legal and compliance work; and other support.
Some of those people, buildings, systems and infrastructure may already exist and would continue to exist without Flock. Existing does not mean free. If the ALPR program consumes a portion of those shared resources, an appropriate portion of their cost contributes to the program's true Total Cost of Ownership.
There is an important distinction between incremental costs created specifically by the ALPR program and allocated costs representing the program's appropriate share of existing personnel, infrastructure, facilities and other resources. Both matter when determining what the program actually costs taxpayers.
Policy 446 itself requires some of that work: department-approved training before anyone may use the system, CLETS verification of every alert before enforcement action, documented reasons for every search, and an audit of searches at least twice a year. Unknown what that staff time costs.
The records currently cited here do not quantify all of those costs, so DeFlock Pleasanton will not guess at a number. But the absence of a published allocation does not make those consumed resources cost-free. The $639,760 vendor agreement should therefore not be presented as though it necessarily represents the complete taxpayer cost of Pleasanton's ALPR program.
The surveillance denominator
Success stories report what the system found. The denominator shows how much routine travel was recorded to find it.
unique vehicles detected in 30 days
search sessions in the same 30 days
unique vehicles recorded for every search session (762,704 ÷ 229)
hotlist hits in the same 30 days
All four figures come from Pleasanton PD's Flock transparency portal as updated 19 October 2026. They are a rolling 30-day snapshot, not annual totals.
Unknown No Pleasanton record we have gives a year's totals for plate reads, searches, verified and false alerts, arrests or recoveries. Without them, the program's results can't be set against the scale of collection. What records would complete the picture →
The photograph isn't the issue. The searchable history is.
No suspicion required. Every passing car recorded.
Documented · Policy 446 ↗ Policy 446.4(b): "reasonable suspicion or probable cause is not required before using an ALPR." Policy 446.2 defines a detection as the system reading a plate in public view, along with the vehicle's description and the camera's location.
Documented · Policy 446 ↗ Documented · Flock portal ↗ Pleasanton keeps that searchable history for 30 days. Searches need a case or incident number and/or a reason, and access is logged. Those safeguards apply when someone searches the data, not when your car is recorded.
Where are Flock cameras in and around Pleasanton?
This community-maintained DeFlock map shows reported automated license-plate-reader locations around Pleasanton. Camera locations can change. The map shows what volunteers have documented, not every camera in Pleasanton. Pleasanton PD's own Flock portal lists 47 cameras.
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