California's Imperial Beach approves license plate reader, public safety cameras

Walker Armstrong, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Jun 8, 2026

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SAN DIEGO — The Imperial Beach City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to authorize the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office to install four automated license plate reader cameras and launch a two-month pilot program for two public safety cameras, joining a growing number of San Diego County jurisdictions using the technology.

The 4-0 vote, with Councilmember Matthew Leyba-Gonzalez absent, authorizes staff to execute the agreement and negotiate final contract language with the Sheriff’s Office. The cameras will be manufactured by Flock Safety, the same vendor used by more than a dozen other county jurisdictions including Chula Vista, Carlsbad and Coronado.

The agreement covers two distinct technologies: automated license plate readers manufactured by Flock Safety, which scan and log vehicle license plates against law enforcement databases, and SafeStreets public safety cameras, fixed video devices that record footage in public spaces for law enforcement review but are not monitored in real time.

The annual cost for the four automated license plate readers is approximately $12,000, which city officials said is covered within the existing fiscal year 2026-2027 operating budget.

According to the staff report, data is retained for a maximum of one year unless part of an active investigation, and annual audits are conducted to verify compliance with privacy policies. The department follows California Senate Bill 34, which governs the collection, storage and sharing of license plate reader data.

One public commenter, Vivian Dunbar, urged caution before the vote.

“This is kind of a trade-off of privacy for security,” Dunbar said, pointing to cases in other county jurisdictions where federal immigration authorities’ access to such data had created community complications.

Lt. Christopher Galve of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office, who presented the program to the council, said his agency controls all data collected by the cameras and does not share it with federal immigration authorities.

“If these outside agencies want access to it, they have to go through all of the same criteria that we do to access that information and they have to put a request into us,” Galve said.

The memorandum of understanding between the city and the Sheriff’s Office is valid for five years and includes a 30-day cancellation clause. City officials said the council may revisit expanding the program after reviewing one year of data.