City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood says the dismissal shows the city's plate reader system "meets constitutional scrutiny"
Susana Alcala WoodCity Attorney of San Jose, whose office defended the case, in a statement quoted by The Mercury News
In a statement after the ruling, San Jose City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood said the city adopted stringent guidelines for the cameras to balance a crime detection and community safety tool against individual privacy rights. She said the dismissal shows that the system meets constitutional scrutiny and gathers only information already observed from public rights-of-way.
Responding to
Because San Jose's license plate reader cameras capture only images of vehicles on public streets, drivers have no legally protected privacy interest and no reasonable expectation of privacy in the information the system collects.
“The city adopted stringent guidelines for its deployment, seeking to balance the use of a significant crime detection and community safety tool with stringent protection of individual privacy rights ... The court's dismissal of the complaint is testament to the fact that the city's ALPR system meets constitutional scrutiny and only gathers information that is already observed from the public rights-of-way.”
Reporting
Reporting
Reporting
Where this statement fits
Judge dismisses challenge to San Jose police's warrantless queries of Flock camera data
On October 2, 2026, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey El-Hajj dismissed a lawsuit by SIREN and CAIR California that sought to require San Jose police to get a warrant before querying the city's stored license plate reader data. The plaintiffs, represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU of Northern California, argued that the warrantless searches violate the California Constitution's protections against unreasonable searches and its right to privacy. The city argued that images of vehicles taken on public streets carry no protected privacy interest. Applying a 2024 state appeals court decision on San Diego streetlight cameras, the judge found no reasonable expectation of privacy in the plate data or in later queries of it, and he denied leave to amend. EFF says it will appeal.
Source and context
Reporting
About this source
A Mercury News report on the ruling, republished by Officer.com through Tribune Content Agency. It quotes the order and gives the fuller statement from City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood, including her description of the city's guidelines, along with a written statement from Andrew Crocker of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
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About this source
San Jose Spotlight's report on the ruling, later distributed by The Associated Press. It quotes City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood, Andrew Crocker of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Huy Tran, executive director of SIREN, and notes the city's March 2026 cut in data retention from one year to 30 days.
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About this source
KQED's report on the October 2 ruling. It quotes an emailed statement from City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood and an interview with Andrew Crocker of the Electronic Frontier Foundation given on October 5, and it describes the city's 2026 limits on the cameras and the separate federal lawsuit against the city.
Before the quotation
The court dismissed the case on October 2, 2026. Her office's January brief had argued that images of vehicles on public streets carry no protected privacy interest.
After the quotation
KQED quoted an emailed statement from her on October 5 saying the ruling validates the city's deployment and oversight of the system. On October 13, the Electronic Frontier Foundation said the plaintiffs will appeal.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
The reference point is the San Jose Police Department's practice of querying the city's stored license plate reader data without a warrant. Alcala Wood says the system meets constitutional scrutiny and only gathers information already visible from public roads, which defends the practice the lawsuit challenged, so we used Defended or excused. The closest competing label is Challenged characterization, because she disputes that the system invades privacy; it loses because she goes further and affirms that the system is lawful and properly balanced.
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More from this case
Read the full caseEFF says the dismissal "is wrong on the law" and that it "will appeal"
Electronic Frontier Foundation
“Make no mistake: We believe this ruling is wrong on the law, and we will appeal. ... Networked ALPRs are not individual streetlight cameras. Their net effect of tracking and mapping cars as they travel reveals patterns of life, intimate relationships, and much more.”Read statement
SIREN's Huy Tran says the cameras "have been used to target immigrants already"
Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network
“These cameras have been used to target immigrants already, but the reality is that we all will be subject to their far-reaching impact”Read statement
EFF's Andrew Crocker says San Jose police "could get a warrant" and calls the city's new limits "insufficient"
“Clearly these cities are recognizing there’s a problem, and I don’t think that restrictions like this are going to solve that problem. Really any use of ALPRs is harmful, and the only way to stop the risk of this kind of abuse is to end their use in these cities ... Short of that, they could get a warrant, they could go before a court and present probable cause to run these searches, which is what we’re seeking in this lawsuit ... San José has not done that. San Francisco has not done that. So it’s insufficient, and it’s very likely that we will see further abuse of these systems.”Read statement
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- City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood says the dismissal shows the city's plate reader system "meets constitutional scrutiny"
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The Dispute Index. "City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood says the dismissal shows the city's plate reader system "meets constitutional scrutiny"". First published: 2026-10-14. Last updated: 2026-10-14. https://disputeindex.com/events/5691-in-a-statement-after-the-ruling-san-jose