Judge issues tentative ruling in San Jose ALPR suit

In a lawsuit that could determine how automated license plate readers or A. L. P. R. S. Can be used in the city for years to come. Yeah, KTVU is Tori Gaines has been tracking this technology and the developments for the past year. Tori, you're in San Jose now with the latest. Yeah, good morning to you both. This all seems really complicated from the outside. But when I spoke to an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation yesterday, she says it really comes down to one simple question. How much access should the government have to your data and especially without a warrant? The ruling likens these extremely invasive automated license plate reader networks or A. L. P. R. Networks to simple surveillance cameras. So there's cases around simple surveillance cameras and about how much information that can capture. And we think that it is incorrect to, um, to analogize it to these surveillance cameras. We think it's much more akin to high tech surveillance technology like cell site location information, geofence warrants, aerial surveillance, all of which can provide intimate details about a person's life and track their movements. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which advocates for digital privacy rights, filed this suit in November of 2025 to block the city of San Jose from accessing A. L. P. R. Data without warrant. Now, the city has argued that the 500 interconnected A. L. P. R. Cameras across San Jose are just surveillance cameras and should be treated as such. And as of yesterday's tentative ruling, the judge agrees. But the E. F. F. Argues that these searches are much more akin to high tech surveillance, like cell phone site location tracking, which the Supreme Court ruled requires a warrant. Now this San Jose suit comes as criticism of flock safety cameras across the Bay Area has reached a fever pitch. Cities like Mountain View and El Cerrito as well as Santa Clara County have already canceled flock contracts or declined to renew. The city of Mountain View really led the way there. They canceled those contracts when local police learned flock had allowed the federal government to access the city's data without prior permission. Now, flock maintains that it does not share data with the federal government. And in a statement earlier this year, flock told KTVU quote a small number of communities have chosen not to renew their contracts when a tool that is actively helping solve violent crimes, locate suspects and find missing people is removed. Public safety does not improve. It moves backwards, unquote. Now, coming up later today, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has one more chance to be heard in front of that judge before that ruling is finalized. And that flock statement says it's just a few cities that are rejecting these policies now, but we're seeing more cities across the nation. This isn't just happening in the Bay Area, so today's ruling could have a wider impact for that. Guys were live this morning in San Jose. Tori Gaines KTVU Fox two news. All right, Tori, thank you so much.