A local law firm filed a lawsuit against Flock alleging federal agencies accessed data from the SFPD’s cameras more than 1.6 million times, and a recent audit by El Cerrito's police department found that several federal agencies briefly accessed its data.

As KTVU reports, Oakland-based law firm Gibbs Mura filed a class-action lawsuit Thursday claiming that data from Flock Safety’s license plate readers was obtained by federal and out-of-state agencies more than 1.6 million times during a seven-month period, and Los Altos’s readers reportedly shared information to out-of-state agencies more than a million times. No further details have been provided about the case.

“The problem that we allege, is that Flock is sharing this information on California drivers with out-of-state law enforcement and the federal government, which is illegal under California law,” says David Berger, a partner with Gibbs Mura, per KTVU.

“They have to be beholden to the laws they claim they are trying to enforce, just like everybody else,” Berger added.

Flock released a statement, saying the company “takes privacy, legal compliance, and data security extremely seriously,” adding, “Flock intends to vigorously defend itself against the asserted claims and allegations.”

NBC Bay Area reports that an audit by the El Cerrito Police Department verified that federal agencies accessed the department’s data from Flock's cameras without its knowledge, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and the GSA Office of the Inspector General, when the cameras were first installed in June 2023 until the police department took administrative control of the system two months later.

As Contra Costa News reports, federal agencies gained access to the ECPD’s database two more times after safeguards had reportedly been installed. Between September and November 2023, the United States Postal Inspection searched ECPD’s database. Additionally, over two days in May 2025, the Loma Linda Healthcare System Veterans Affairs Police searched the database.

Per Contra Costa News, Flock reported that the company promptly fixed flaws in the department’s settings that allowed the agencies to access the database. Regarding the Loma Linda Healthcare Systems Veterans Affairs Police, Flock says the agency was incorrectly labeled as a state agency.

“We found these two other incidents of federal sharing that came as a surprise to me,” Chief Paul Keith of the El Cerrito Police Department said.

Per KTVU, the San Jose Police Department implemented safeguards, including requiring more documentation from outside agencies, limiting camera locations, and reducing data retention to 30 days instead of a year, per NBC Bay Area.

Additionally, as KTVU reported Wednesday, the Mountain View City Council voted unanimously to end the city's contract with Flock, and pressure is also mounting in the city of Richmond. As Axios reports, a federal agency accessed the Richmond Police Department's Flock cameras last year before the department blocked access to all federal agencies.

Per NBC Bay Area, Keith will provide further details about the El Cerrito police department's audit at El Cerrito’s city council meeting on March 10.

Image: Tony Webster/Wikimedia

Previously: Report: Flock Safety, Maker of SF’s License Plate Reader Cameras, Had Gobsmacking Security Flaw

A 29-year-old towing company owner was sentenced to five years in federal prison for orchestrating a plan to set the trucks of four rival companies on fire, along with two years for submitting fraudulent car insurance claims, with state welfare fraud charges pending.

As Bay City News reports, Jose Vicente Badillo, 29, who's the owner of San Francisco-based companies Auto Towing and Specialty Towing, was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison on February 12 after pleading guilty to committing arson. As Mission Local reports, Badillo carried out a plan between April and October 2023 in which he conspired with others to set fire to six different tow trucks owned by four competitors in San Francisco and East Palo Alto, according to court documents.

Bay City News writes that Badillo’s plan was in retaliation to perceived wrongdoings by his rivals as well as an effort to drive more customers to his businesses. Additionally, Badillo was sentenced in a separate federal case on February 13 to 27 months in prison for conspiring to submit false auto insurance claims, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses, between 2017 and 2021 approximately, which he’ll serve at the same time as the arson sentence, per Bay City News.

Mission Local reports that the two cases are part of a long roster of cases opened against Badillo in recent years. In 2023, the San Francisco district attorney charged Badillo on counts of welfare fraud, perjury, and grand theft for allegedly lying on his welfare application. Per Mission Local, while Badillo’s companies were generating $2 million per year in revenue, which went toward a $250,000 Lamborghini and several other large purchases, Badillo and his partner managed to receive full Medi-Cal, CalFresh, and CalWORKS benefits.

Additionally, Mission Local reports that Badillo has been prohibited from working with the city of San Francisco since February 2024 after it was discovered that one of Badillo’s companies installed fake “no parking” signs in a bank parking lot in 2023 and illegally towed cars. As Mission Local reported last fall, Badillo was reportedly still working with the city under a different business name despite no longer having a permit.

Image: TrongNguyen/Getty Images

In a sickening case out of Southern California, 30 officers at a juvenile detention facility have been accused of facilitating gladiator-style fights involving over 140 youth in their care. The case focuses on three specific officers who are suspected of alerting staff members ahead of fights.

According to AP, a grand jury indictment alleges that at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Los Angeles County between July 2023 and December 2023, nearly 70 fights took place between 140 victims who were ages 12 to 18 years old, which officers allowed, and even encouraged, to happen.

LAist reports that the indictment includes 71 counts against the officers, most of which are for child abuse or child endangerment with aggravating factors, including the "vulnerability of the victims and the officer’s position of trust or confidence, which helped enable them to commit the offense."

The indictment also lists nine "overt acts," which center on three officers named in the case — Shawn Smyles, Taneha Brooks, and Nancy Sostre, who are believed to have told other staff members not to report the fights and just to watch. The indictment also alleges that Smyles told the youths to refuse treatment from nurses, including one child who had a broken nose.

Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement:

We believe that this was planned, it was intended. They often wanted them to happen at the beginning of the day, in a certain time, in a certain place, a space and a time was created for the fights, and the plan was for the fights to happen.

News of the fights first came to light when the Los Angeles Times obtained video footage of a 17-year-old being attacked by six other kids while officers appeared to stand by and watch, some laughing. The 17-year-old and his family have a civil case against the facility, along with other victims and their families, including one who received a traumatic brain injury.

The Probation Department has reportedly been sited numerous times by state regulators for lack of staffing at the detention facility. In response, Attorney General Bonta implemented additional measures at the facility:

Strengthening Monitoring and Accountability: The judgment maintains semi-annual comprehensive monitoring reports, and now requires the reports to be publicly filed with the court. In addition, judgment requires monthly monitoring reports on critical health and safety issues. The judgment provides for the appointment of a deputy monitor at each facility in the event that the County fails to come into compliance with critical judgment terms.

Ensuring Youth Safety and Wellbeing: The judgment will require the County to ensure timely review of uses of force, address gaps in camera coverage, and establish protocols to review incidents.

Guaranteeing Access to Services: The judgment will require the County to implement an electronic data system to help ensure that youth have access to outside recreation, religious services, and visitation. The judgment will also require the County to implement a plan to address the County’s persistent failure to timely deliver youth to medical appointments.

Addressing the Staffing Crisis: The judgment requires the County to implement a revised plan to resolve the staffing crisis that addresses required minimum staffing levels based on facility population, leave abuses, and staff recruitment, retention, and wellness.

Preventing Retaliation: The judgment requires the County to establish a monitor-approved anti-retaliation policy, and hire and train an ombudsperson at each hall to address youth grievances and prevent retaliation.

Revising Inadequate Polices: The judgment requires the County to revise inadequate policies on: (1) reducing violence, including staff instigated violence and ensuring timely and adequate investigations; and (2) reporting child abuse.

All of the officers involved are on leave without pay and are expected to plead not guilty to the charges.

Image via Google Maps

Former baseball great and Giants slugger Barry Bonds appeared on court today, pleading not guilty to 15 federal charges of fibbing to a grand jury. If you recall, Bonds just did the exact same thing in December, but after a "judge ordered prosecutors to rewrite the slugger's indictment to fix legal infirmities in the document," the brand spanking new indictment "legal infirmities in the document." Whatever that means.

As we all know by now:

Prosecutors say he lied when he told a grand jury investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative in 2003 that he never knowingly took steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs. Bonds also is scheduled to appear later Friday at a status conference where a trial date might be set.

We're starting to feel for the guy. Sort of.

The maker of those little tree-shaped air fresheners you find dangling from rear view mirrors have sued Gap Inc. over Old Navy's use of the iconic image in a t-shirt, emblazoned with the slogan "Keeping it Fresh." The federal lawsuit, according to the Examiner, was brought against the local retail mammoth in U.S. District Court in Syracuse, N.Y. The company, simply titled Car-Freshener Corporation of Watertown, claims that "the design on the T-shirts is identical to their trademarked design, which is used by the company on car air fresheners, apparel and other items."

The company is looking to bar Old Navy from buying, selling, and advertising its tree-designed items.

That said, here are some Old Navy locations in the Bay Area. You might want to think about taking an early lunch break to head over and buy one before the controversial shirts sellout. Much like Paul Frank's and Abercrombie & Fitch's t-shirts that were supposedly racist and banned a few years back, these shirts are sure to become collector's items as well. Go buy four of them.