San Diego's $2 million Flock camera contract faces cancellation after Councilmember Stephen Whitburn reversed his position Tuesday, Oct. 13. His switch gives opponents a simple majority on the nine-member City Council.

Whitburn, who represents District 3 covering downtown and Balboa Park, had voted to keep the automated license plate readers (ALPRs) as recently as June. He announced his reversal at a press conference at City Hall, citing fear in immigrant communities that the federal government could use camera data for immigration enforcement.

"Parents are afraid of what could happen when they take their children to school. American citizens have been detained," Whitburn said, according to Voice of San Diego, which first reported the new majority.

Whitburn said the cameras had lost their effectiveness as a public safety tool if they were making San Diegans feel unsafe. The city bans sharing ALPR data with federal immigration officials, according to Voice of San Diego, but Whitburn said reports of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement expanding operations in San Diego and targeting schools and construction sites heightened the urgency, KPBS reported.

San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl pushed back the same day. In a written statement, Wahl said the cameras have helped solve more than 900 cases and pointed to results in Whitburn's own district, writing that the technology assisted in hate crime cases against the LGBTQ community and helped find a suspect in an attempted child kidnapping.

Wahl also said SDPD has never shared ALPR data for immigration purposes.

Mayor Todd Gloria, a Flock supporter, issued a statement defending the program. Gloria said the cameras have assisted in nearly 900 criminal investigations and helped San Diegans recover more than $8.7 million in stolen property.

Gloria has the power to veto a Council decision to cancel the contract. Overriding that veto would require a 6-3 supermajority the opponents do not hold.

The city owns more than 500 cameras spread across 52 communities, with the heaviest concentration downtown, according to Times of San Diego. Downtown has roughly 17.8 cameras per square mile. La Jolla is not among the 15 communities listed as having no city-owned ALPRs.

The Council voted 5-3 in December 2025 to continue using the cameras, with hundreds of residents speaking at that meeting, according to KPBS. In June, four councilmembers voted to end the contract during budget hearings, but five, including Whitburn, kept it intact.

The ACLU Foundation of San Diego and Imperial Counties filed a lawsuit against the city and SDPD on Sept. 30, alleging the camera network violates the California Constitution's privacy protections, according to KPBS.

Seth Hall, a founding member of the TRUST Coalition, a community group opposing mass surveillance in San Diego, called Whitburn's move a step in the right direction but cautioned against focusing only on Flock, Voice of San Diego reported.

The next step is the city's annual surveillance report, expected before the Public Safety Committee in November. The full Council could then vote on the contract in December. If the vote is delayed past the November election, the anti-Flock majority could shift.