A lack of Flock transparency
Between Feb. 19 and March 19 of 2025, for a one-month span, Ventura County Sheriff’s Office ALPR (Flock) cameras were accessed 364,000 times by agencies outside of the state of California, which violated state law (SB-34). An internal audit conducted by VCSO further revealed that 299 search justifications entered into the system referenced immigration enforcement.
The “system bug” that allowed these unlawful searches was discovered and turned off by Flock Safety on March 19, 2025. Instead of Flock coming forward and notifying partner agencies of the error, they did nothing. They waited until law enforcement agencies, through internal audits and private citizens asking for records requests, discovered that our data had been unlawfully shared.
If it wasn’t for the VCSO and Chief Tennessen asking questions, I don’t think Flock Safety would have ever come forward regarding the data breach.
Transparency is the foundation of trust. Flock doesn’t care about transparency, Flock doesn’t care about keeping neighborhoods safe or solving property crime, Flock only cares about one thing, and that is generating as much revenue as humanly possible through government contracts.
As a city, and as a county, we need to seriously look at the agencies that we are trusting with this information and analyze if this is the company that is going to be honest with us. Will they do the right thing when times are hard and when push comes to shove?
Through examples like this one, and countless other examples across the country, it’s apparent that Flock Safety will not.
Matt O’Neill, Camarillo
A war zone on wheels
In June, Ventura County Transportation Commission installed roundabouts in my neighborhood. It was a godsend finally slowing down the cars racing through the streets at high rates of speed and reducing the noise levels considerably.
The last year has been especially bad with dozens of violations every day. Last month VCTC workers removed the roundabouts and when I asked why they said the city wanted them gone. The neighborhood is tantamount to the Wild West with the sheer volume of traffic and the noise from the racing.
Part of city government’s responsibility, in particular the city council, is to foster safe neighborhoods and maintain a healthy quality of life — neither of which exists in my neighborhood. It’s become a war zone on wheels.
Jenny McKinney, Ventura
Curb population growth
Climate change is real, and anybody who doesn’t see that has got blinders on. Droughts, too much water, tornadoes, hurricanes, snowstorms are all worse than they were 50 years ago.
What’s the reason for all this? Population explosion. Fifty years ago, there were 4.14 billion people on our planet. Estimated population in the year 2026 was 8.3 billion. I’m no population scientist, climate scientist or anything else, I just know that the Earth cannot hold 8 billion people and still survive. We are killing ourselves.
Unless steps are taken to curb population growth, we might as well just give it up right now.
Gary Sparks, Camarillo
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Flock only cares about revenue, roundabout issue, and more | Letters
