STOCKTON POLICE OFFICIALS said this week that an employee improperly used the city’s Flock license plate reader system and no longer works for the department, revealing new details about oversight of Stockton’s expanding surveillance network.
Police Chief Stanley McFadden told the City Council’s Audit Committee on Monday that an internal audit uncovered the misconduct, prompting the department to restrict the employee’s access, open an administrative investigation and review other police databases.
The department also notified the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office and the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training.
Aug. 19 was the officer’s last day with the city, McFadden said. He did not identify the officer or explain the nature of the misconduct.
“While no organization is free from human error or misconduct, accountability is measured by how we respond,” McFadden told the committee.
The disclosure comes three weeks after Vice Mayor Jason Lee said he had received an allegation that a police officer used Flock to stalk his girlfriend. Lee did not identify the officer or provide evidence supporting the allegation at the Sept. 1 City Council meeting but said he understood the department had taken action.
The Stockton Police Officers’ Association later addressed the allegation in a public statement, saying any alleged misuse should be investigated.
McFadden did not explicitly confirm whether the misconduct he described Monday involved that allegation.
Flock Safety’s technology uses cameras and artificial intelligence to capture license plates and identifying vehicle characteristics, recording when and where cameras detect passing vehicles. Police can search that information to identify vehicles connected to investigations, but the system has also raised concerns about its potential to track people’s movements.
Police shift responsibility for Flock audits
Following the misconduct, Stockton police plan to transfer responsibility for reviewing Flock activity from a sergeant to the department’s Professional Standards Unit, which handles internal misconduct investigations.
McFadden said the department already logs every Flock search and conducts monthly audits. Professional Standards will now review system activity every 30 days, although he did not explain whether the unit would examine more searches or follow different procedures.
The department also restricts access according to employees’ roles, provides training on privacy and data security, and retains license plate reader data for 30 days. McFadden did not say whether the employee had authorized access when the misconduct occurred or whether police have changed those restrictions.
“This is amazing technology.”
Chief Stanley McFadden
Another planned change is a public transparency page covering Flock and other police technologies that use artificial intelligence. Residents will be able to review information about the systems, McFadden said, but he did not specify whether the page would include audit findings or incidents of employee misconduct.
Despite the incident, McFadden defended the technology’s investigative value.
“This is amazing technology,” he told the committee.
During the past year, McFadden said, Flock generated more than 166,000 alerts tied to vehicles in law enforcement databases, including more than 2,000 stolen vehicle hits. He also credited license plate readers with helping officers investigate serious crimes and locate missing people, saying the technology allows detectives to work “beyond capacity.”
Stockton expands Flock amid privacy concerns
The disclosure comes months after Stockton committed millions of additional dollars to Flock despite objections from residents concerned about privacy, immigration enforcement and government surveillance.
The City Council voted 7-0 in March to approve a $3.15 million expansion of its contract with Flock Safety, adding six drones to an existing network of approximately 120 automated license plate readers. The amendment extended the agreement through April 2031 and brought its potential five-year value to more than $5.4 million.
More than an hour of public opposition preceded the vote, with residents questioning how Stockton would regulate the technology and who could access or share the information it collected.
Public opposition continued Aug. 18, when residents used the City Council’s public comment period to urge officials to reconsider the Flock contract, even though the technology was not on the agenda.
David Sengthay, president of Stockton Democrats Together, questioned the city’s financial oversight of the Flock contract, saying the $3.15 million drone expansion appeared in the city’s accounting system under a project label called “Animal Shelter Study.”
He called for suspending the contract and holding a public hearing before spending additional money. Youth organizer Hilda Cabello-Garcia raised concerns about sharing license plate data with federal agencies, while resident Diana Tapia urged the council to terminate the agreement.
Similar concerns have prompted other California cities to reconsider their relationships with Flock.
McFadden said Monday that Stockton has not shared Flock information with federal agencies. However, investigations elsewhere have documented how federal immigration authorities obtained information from the company’s network through searches conducted by local law enforcement.
Feds tap into Flock data
In May 2025, 404 Media reported that local and state police had conducted more than 4,000 Flock searches on behalf of federal authorities or for potentially immigration-related investigations. The following month, Flock restricted nationwide searches into cameras in California, Illinois and Virginia.
In June, San Francisco police disclosed that an audit uncovered 299 improper searches of the city’s Flock data on behalf of federal and out-of-state agencies over approximately one year, according to CBS.
The department said its review found no searches related to immigration enforcement or reproductive rights investigations, but the findings highlighted how outside agencies could obtain information without directly accessing a city’s cameras.
There is no evidence in those findings that Stockton’s data was accessed.
Lee, who has supported Stockton’s investment in license plate readers and police drones, focused Monday’s discussion on employee accountability rather than whether the city should continue using the technology.
“What I hear is somebody misused it,” Lee said. “Somebody was held accountable.”
But the committee’s discussion left several questions unanswered, including whether police found additional misconduct while reviewing other databases, whether prosecutors are considering criminal charges and whether anyone whose information the employee improperly accessed received notification.
Stocktonia sought clarification Tuesday about those issues, the employee’s position and what additional safeguards the department plans to implement.
“Unfortunately, we won’t be able to accommodate answering all those questions at this time,” police spokesperson David Scott said.
Scott said McFadden plans to return to the full City Council in early November with a presentation covering the department’s use of Flock technology. He did not indicate whether that presentation would address the outstanding questions about the employee’s misconduct.
This story originally appeared in Stocktonia.