Twenty-five California agencies asked to search a ten-camera beach town's Flock network in ten weeks

At least 25 California law enforcement agencies, from Imperial County on the Mexico border to San Bernardino County, asked to search a ten-camera beach town's Flock network in ten weeks. Capitola was sharing with five.

The requests arrived in four automated Flock emails titled "Pending Flock Camera Share Requests," dated February 10, February 25, March 11, and April 22, 2026, each opening with the same line: "Great news, your network is growing!" The agencies asking for Search permissions on Capitola PD's cameras: Imperial County Sheriff's Office, Whittier PD, Fairfield PD, Marina PD, Redwood City PD, Inglewood PD, Visalia PD, San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office, Redding PD, La Mesa PD, San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office, San Jose PD, Hollister PD, Petaluma PD, Greenfield PD, Newport Beach PD, Lancaster PD, Tiburon PD, Hillsborough PD, San Benito County Sheriff's Office, Fontana PD, Grover Beach PD, Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office, Citrus Heights PD, Napa PD, and Merced County Sheriff's Office.

Flock's own Sharing Snapshot shows how few got in. As of March 31, 2026, Capitola was sharing with five in-state organizations, with no out-of-state sharing, no federal sharing, and the California statewide network disabled. The production does not name the five or show how the department answered each individual request.

Capitola is a beach town of about 10,000 people in Santa Cruz County. Imperial County sits on the Mexico border, more than 500 miles away. The request volume shows how the Flock mesh grows: every agency on the platform is prompted to connect to every other, and each grant is framed as good news rather than as a data-sharing decision. No public record maps who can search whom. Capitola's posture, five shares and statewide discovery switched off, is unusually restrained, and it matches the contract stance its chief documented elsewhere in the same records production.

Source: Capitola Police Department, California PRA request 124, Bates CAP_PRA_124_000001, 000208, 000222, 000239, 000413, 000428.