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Guest contribution by Jessica Ansari Moorpark Moms for Progressive Values
One of California’s safest cities is preparing for a September debate over why its 15 fixed Flock license plate reader cameras remain in place after Ventura County data was made available to out-of-state and federal agencies in violation of California law.
During a one-month period in early 2025, out-of-state agencies ran more than 364,000 searches against the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office’s Flock network, even though VCSO believed national access had been disabled since 2023. Immigration enforcement was referenced in the justifications for 299 searches. Flock has acknowledged that the access was unauthorized but said its technical logs cannot fully explain how it occurred.
That access violated California law, yet Moorpark’s cameras are still collecting residents’ vehicle information and retaining it for one year. Neighboring Simi Valley retains ALPR data for only 30 days.
Within months of the unauthorized searches, significant immigration raids occurred in Moorpark on June 13, 2025, according to the city itself. On July 10, hundreds of federal agents conducted a massive operation at Glass House Farms near Camarillo. More than 300 people were arrested, families were separated and a farmworker died after falling from a greenhouse roof. In Moorpark, mass raids, arrests and family separations also occurred shortly after the data breach.
In Moorpark, 34.4% of residents are Latino, compared with 30.3% in Camarillo, 29% in Simi Valley and 20.6% in Thousand Oaks.
The public-safety justification also deserves scrutiny. FBI data recorded only 35 violent crimes in Moorpark in 2024, including no murders and one rape. Moorpark had 99 violent crimes per 100,000 residents, lower than Thousand Oaks at 102 and Camarillo and Simi Valley at approximately 129 each. Its property crime rate was also the lowest of the four cities. We have 15 fifteen cameras to catch 35 violent crimes annually.
SafeWise subsequently ranked Moorpark the fourth-safest city in California for 2026 and the safest in Ventura County.
This effort is being led by local mothers through Moorpark Moms for Progressive Values. Mothers are often invoked as the reason cities need more surveillance in the name of protecting children. We are making the opposite case: keeping our families safe also means protecting their privacy, demanding accountability when legal safeguards fail and recognizing that officers across the country have repeatedly misused Flock data to track women in their personal lives, including wives, former partners and ex-girlfriends. That mothers are raising this challenge in one of California’s safest cities is part of what makes this noteworthy. We are asking whether an expansive surveillance network actually makes families safer or simply creates a new risk they never consented to.
Residents are asking the City Council to determine whether local records were accessed, disclose what measurable results the fixed cameras have produced and remove them at the earliest lawful opportunity. Oxnard has already suspended all 19 of its fixed cameras following the same unauthorized access.
The Council is expected to revisit the issue publicly in September. I’ve attached a source sheet with links to the underlying records and can provide our letter to the Council, speak on the record or connect you with other Moorpark residents involved.
Best,
Jessica
Moorpark Moms for Progressive Values, Founder
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