69 Cameras Read Newport License Plates. Make That 77. The Contract Calls for a Year.

Published November 8, 2026

License plate recognition cameras mounted on a pole beside a busy road with palm trees in the background.

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NEWPORT BEACH | CITY HALL WATCH | NOVEMBER 8, 2026

Drive into Newport and there’s a decent chance a camera on a pole wrote down your license plate. Not a speed camera. A Flock automated license plate reader, and the city has a lot of them.

Newport Beach Police Department now publicly posts an Automated License Plate Readers policy that spells out authorized uses, access restrictions, monitoring, retention and data-sharing provisions.

How we got here

On July 9, 2024, the council approved a contract with Flock Group of Atlanta for 69 readers “strategically placed throughout the city,” keeping data for 30 days. A first amendment added four around Fashion Island, for 73. In September 2025 the council approved four more: dual cameras at the Corona del Mar State Beach entrance and two along Newport Coast Drive. That’s 77. Police updates to the Civil Service Board this year mention three more planned for Bayview Heights.

The same September 2025 amendment stretched how long the data is kept, from 30 days to one year. Police said a month wasn’t long enough because crimes often get reported late and patterns take time to connect. The contract now tops out at $1,618,100.

Some neighborhoods aren’t waiting for the city. One homeowners association reviewed a $22,000 proposal to put up Flock cameras of its own.

The questions

Nobody’s saying the cameras don’t help catch bad guys. But a year of everybody’s comings and goings is a lot of data, and locals should know how it’s handled.

Where are they? We couldn’t find a public map. Are any on the peninsula?
Who can search the data, and for what? California law requires agencies running these readers to post a written usage and privacy policy. Newport’s policy is now posted publicly. It says ALPR data is for official law-enforcement business; access is limited to trained employees with a legitimate law-enforcement need; and searches must be logged with the user’s name, date, time, case or incident number and reason. The policy also calls for a monthly audit of ALPR inquiries.
Who else sees it? The policy says ALPR data may be shared with other law-enforcement or prosecutorial agencies for official law-enforcement purposes, or as otherwise permitted by law.

There is an important difference between the contract and the posted policy. The Flock contract amendment calls for retention of up to one year. The department’s policy says ALPR data should be stored for at least 30 days and then automatically deleted unless it has become, or is reasonably expected to become, evidence or is subject to a discovery request or other lawful demand.

The public can now read the rules. The remaining question is how the one-year contract retention period fits with the department’s posted 30-day default.

Sources

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69 Cameras Read Newport License Plates. Make That 77. The Contract Calls for a Year.

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