SDPD used Flock license plate readers to surveil domestic violence victim and its own officers, records show

Internal Affairs investigators with the San Diego Police Department used the city's Flock automated license plate reader network to surveil a domestic violence victim and the officer they suspected of having a sexual relationship with her, according to department records obtained by Voice of San Diego.

The records show that in 2025, SDPD internal investigators began looking into Officer Miguel Gonzalez after colleagues reported he had begun a sexual relationship with a woman he'd met while responding to a domestic violence call. Investigators then used Flock cameras — a network of roughly 500 license plate readers installed across San Diego — to track the movements of both Gonzalez and the victim.

"Officer Miguel Gonzalez began a romantic, sexual relationship with a domestic violence victim [redacted] went to her home while on duty, and had sexual intercourse with her on March 6, 2025," an internal investigation document states. "Prior to going to her house, Officer Gonzalez was dispatched to a call at a different location. Officer Gonzalez made the victim of that call wait 51 minutes before he arrived."

In response to the revelations, Councilmember Raul Campillo demanded the Flock program be immediately suspended and audited.

"Learning that the Police Department used ALPRs inappropriately to surveil one of their own and a member of the public calls the entire program into question," Campillo said. "I am demanding that the program be immediately suspended and an audit be conducted of its use within our Police Department to understand the extent which it has been misused."

Ted Womack Jr., vice chair of San Diego's Privacy Advisory Board — which oversees the city's use of surveillance technology — said the department's surveillance of the domestic violence victim appears to violate the city's Flock use policy.

"That domestic violence victim was in no way in a circumstance or situation where they were some sort of suspect or subject of any kind of investigation where they would need to be surveilled," Womack said. "This definitely sounds like a violation of the use policy."

The SDPD spokesperson, Ashley Nicholes, defended the department's use of the technology, stating that searching both the victim's license plate and Gonzalez's were allowable under the department's use policy and procedures, adding that "those purposes are not limited to criminal matters."

The San Diego Police Officers Association, which represents rank-and-file officers, said in a recent letter to city officials that the department never informed union members that Flock would be used for internal investigations. The union demanded officials cease and desist using Flock for "non-criminal administrative investigations" and conduct a transparent audit.

"We recognize that members will be understandably upset that this technology was used in this manner," the union board wrote. "The SDPOA supported Flock because of its value as a crime-fighting and public safety tool. We continue to support that purpose."

The disclosure comes at a precarious moment for the Flock program. Last month, a City Council committee voted to end the city's contract with Flock following revelations of past data access problems and wrongful arrests tied to the technology. The mayor and police chief have been pushing to retain the cameras.

"Flock has done a poor job of defending its product locally and nationally from a public-relations perspective," the SDPOA board wrote. "It has become apparent that continued use of Flock may no longer be politically sustainable in San Diego."