By admin 
SANTA CLARITA, Calif. (KABC) — Flock surveillance cameras are supposed to be license plate readers in high traffic areas looking for stolen cars or maybe kidnapping victims. So why then, is there a Flock camera placed on a tiny residential street in Santa Clarita?
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“So we came out one day,” Santa Clarita resident Bioleta Herrera told Eyewitness News, “and the camera was directly facing our house. We were like, ‘Oh, no, no, that’s not gonna work.'”
Herrera lives on Race Street in an area known as “Little Tijuana.” It’s the only neighborhood in Santa Clarita that has Flock cameras off the main drag and people in Little TJ say they know why.
“This is a really Latino-based community,” Herrera said.
“This is not a higher crime area,” says Brett Haddoak, who is running for Santa Clarita City Council on an anti-flock camera platform. “I want to know the justification for putting the cameras here in the area that just happens to be higher higher Latino population.”
“I can’t imagine why,” Haddoak continued, “if the stated purpose is a license plate reading device, you’re not going to get too many license plates looking at somebody’s houses. … If you live in this couple square miles, you are subject to surveillance whether or not you want it or not. There’s no opt-out.”
Flock cameras have been a divisice and controversial project from their beginnings, with hundreds of cases of violations including police illegally accessing the cameras for everything from spying on exes to sharing information with federal immigration. That last point remains a very real fear in a neighborhood like Little TJ.
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“Ever since I think the camera has been here,” Bioleta Herrera tells us, “almost every four or five times out of the week ICE is here. And to this day they’re still here.”
Jae Chan Lee is the founder and president of DeFlock SCV.
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“The only conclusion that someone can come to,” Lee says, “is that something about this neighborhood is promoting flock to put all these cameras here.”
Eyewitness News had hoped to speak with the city of Santa Clarita on this story. We reached out to the mayor’s office, the city manager’s office and city council but did not hear back.
Flock provided a statement that reads: “Flock does not share specifics regarding individual agency contracts, camera counts, locations or deployments. The customer agency is the best source for local deployment, policy, retention and public safety outcome information.
“Flock’s LPR cameras are installed facing roadways and only capture still images of the back of the vehicles,” the statement said. “Our LPR cameras do not have live video capability.”
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