Tonight, I stood before the Ventura City Council with a simple message: we cannot outsource civil rights to a third-party vendor.
As a Ventura resident and the community co-author of the CARE Policy, I reminded Council that the policy was adopted to keep City resources from being used to target immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, or those seeking reproductive or gender-affirming healthcare.
What the Record Shows
Ventura’s taxpayer-funded Flock network created searchable vehicle data through 23 ALPR cameras. The City has acknowledged that a vendor-enabled feature allowed two out-of-state agencies to query the system without authorization between March and September 2025, and that it cannot determine whether Ventura vehicle data was returned.
The record does not show that those queries involved immigration or healthcare enforcement. But uncertainty is not accountability, and Ventura cannot guarantee CARE protections inside a system it cannot fully audit.
The Clock Is Ticking
The contract renews December 18 and requires 30 days’ notice to cancel. Council needs a path forward by November 18.
I asked Councilmembers Liz Campos and Ryyn Schumacher to jointly agendize this contract, publish the audit and performance data, refuse renewal, remove every Flock ALPR camera, and establish a moratorium and ordinance against AI-enabled mass surveillance.
A Policy Must Govern the Technology
The CARE Policy must be more than a proclamation. It must govern the technologies we buy with public money.
A policy that protects civil rights on paper but funds surveillance in practice is not a policy. It is a press release.
Community Power
My deepest gratitude to Michelle Rosenblum and Indivisible Ventura for organizing residents to show up, speak out, and demand accountability. Community power looks like people filling the room and refusing to be ignored.
Ventura residents: contact your councilmember and ask them to place this contract on the agenda before November 18.