Data update: San Jose CA PD (Apr 2026)

5.3M network audit records and an extended org audit from San Jose CA PD, covering March 2025 – February 2026

by HaveIBeenFlocked Team5 min read

A second release of records from the San Jose Police Department was obtained via a public records request through MuckRock. It substantially extends the first release, which covered July 1 – December 9, 2025 with all license plates and reasons redacted by SJPD under California Government Code §7923.600.

Organization audit

  • Type: Organization audit
  • Timespan: Mar 1, 2025 – Jan 26, 2026 (~11 months)
  • Records: ~238K

The new release extends org audit coverage back to March 1, 2025. Records from March through June 17 (65,135 entries) are in a legacy format: no ID column, no Org Name column, no Total Devices Searched, and the search timestamp split across separate Search Date (date only) and Search Time (time only) columns. Monthly files for July 2025 through January 26, 2026 follow the standard format.

Network audit

  • Type: Network audit
  • Timespan: Mar 1, 2025 – Feb 27, 2026 (~12 months)
  • Records: ~5.3M
  • Organizations: up to 250 per month

This release adds full network audits — all agencies searching cameras associated with San Jose — for the entire span. Top agencies across all files: California Highway Patrol, Riverside County CA SO, San Francisco CA PD, Los Angeles CA PD, and Los Angeles County CA SD.

Period Records Orgs
Mar 1 – May 1, 2025 885,267 226
May 1 – Jun 17, 2025 700,601 228
Jul 2025 548,165 234
Aug 2025 488,075 238
Sep 2025 432,202 243
Oct 2025 452,978 247
Nov 2025 435,584 244
Dec 2025 427,671 246
Jan 2026 453,564 247
Feb 2026 458,396 246

The Mar 1–May 1 and May 1–Jun 17 files also use a format where there is no ID column, no Search Type, Text Prompt, or Moderation columns, and the search timestamp split across separate Search Date and Search Time columns. The December 2025 file adds an ID column at the start (14 columns vs. 13 for other months).

The release includes a second August file covering only August 1–21 (331,497 records); the full monthly file above supersedes it. There is also a roughly two-week gap in coverage between June 17 and July 1.

Mutations between the two August files

Comparing the partial August file (Aug 1–21) against the same window in the full August file reveals mutation consistent with the pattern in transparency portal audits:

  • 29,657 records had License Plate changed from empty to REDACTED
  • 44,370 records disappeared from the partial file’s window (13.4%).
  • 44,755 records appeared in the full file that were not in the partial.
  • 224 agencies have records that both disappeared and appeared. For these agencies the records were not simply deleted — they were replaced with different records covering the same time window. Top agencies by disappeared volume: California Highway Patrol (−4,867 / +4,813), Riverside County CA SO (−3,355 / +3,416), San Jose CA PD (−3,018 / +2,974), San Francisco CA PD (−2,543 / +2,582), Los Angeles CA PD (−2,232 / +2,202).
  • 345 records across 2 agencies purely vanished with no replacement: 344 from “Los Gatos Monte Sereno PD - CA” (a rename, described below) and 1 from South Pasadena CA PD.

The disappeared records are distributed roughly uniformly across all 21 days in the window — 10–15% of each day’s records disappeared on every day, with no clustering on specific dates. The rate shows no detectable pattern by agency, license plate value, or search reason.

The two files were exported by the same SJPD records custodian as part of this CPRA response: the partial on February 10, 2026, the full on March 4, 2026.

Between two exports of the same 21-day window by the same custodian, separated by 23 days, about 13% of network audit records changed. These are nominally static, historical audit logs. The churn is not a boundary artifact and affects all agencies across all 21 days at a roughly uniform rate. Whether this reflects a background reconciliation process, a data compaction, or something else in Flock’s storage is unknown.

One agency that appeared to have 344 disappeared records turned out to be a rename: “Los Gatos Monte Sereno PD - CA” in the partial became “Town of Los Gatos CA” in the full. A record-level comparison of the overlapping Aug 1–21 window confirms the records are the same data — 304 of 344 match exactly on all shared fields; the remaining 40 differ only in the plate field (empty in the partial, REDACTED in the full), consistent with the plate-redaction pattern across the entire file. The figures above account for this rename.

We already knew this from seeing it across organizations, but this confirms organization names in Flock’s system are mutable between exports done by the same agency. Through its contracts, Flock further disclaims warranties of completeness of log files, accuracy for organization names, or really anything about any data it provides.

In other words, Flock is not contractually required to provide complete and accurate logs, or to represent an agency using that agency’s name—i.e., the account bearing the “San Bernardino CA PD” label may be associated with persons in Nevada, New York, or D.C…