Civil liberties groups sue San Jose over warrantless ALPR searches
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, ACLU, and other civil liberties groups filed a lawsuit on November 18, 2025, challenging San Jose's practice of conducting warrantless searches of automated license plate reader data collected by approximately 500 cameras throughout the city. The plaintiffs allege the practice violates the California Constitution by enabling unchecked surveillance of residents' movements without judicial authorization.
What happened
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, ACLU of Northern California, SIREN, and CAIR-CA filed a lawsuit in Santa Clara County Superior Court on November 18, 2025, challenging San Jose's use of automated license plate readers (ALPRs).
The plaintiffs allege that San Jose Police Department conducts millions of warrantless searches of license plate data collected by approximately 500 cameras installed throughout the city, with data retained for an entire year.
Reported impact
According to the lawsuit, the surveillance practices enable unchecked monitoring of residents' and visitors' movements, revealing travel patterns and providing intimate windows into people's lives as they travel from home to work, to schools, places of worship, doctor's offices, or protests.
The plaintiffs argue that a person driving regularly through areas with ALPR surveillance can have their location information captured multiple times per day without any suspicion of lawbreaking.
Index analysis
The lawsuit alleges that San Jose's practice of conducting warrantless searches of ALPR data violates the California Constitution's ban on unreasonable searches.
The plaintiffs contend that without warrant requirements, there is unchecked police power to scrutinize the movements of San Jose residents and visitors, including information that could reveal whether a person crossed state lines to seek healthcare.
Governance controls
The ALPR system was contracted through Flock Systems and introduced through pilot programs that city officials and the police department promoted as a way to curb deadly vehicle-pedestrian collisions at busy intersections.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.