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TEMPE, AZ (AZFamily) — The City of Tempe announced Wednesday that it has turned off its Flock license plate reader cameras and plans to end its contract with the company.
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The city also said it will not look for another company to replace the system.
“These cameras have helped our police officers do their jobs, and we don’t discount that,” Tempe Mayor Corey Woods said in a statement about the move.
“But the risk of misuse is too great. We have to be able to provide public safety in a way that maintains the trust of our community. For Tempe, that means taking these cameras down.”
Tempe added that residents may continue to see the cameras around the city until the company Flock Safety removes them. While the system stores data for 30 days before it’s automatically deleted, the city stressed that no new data is being collected. Tempe has 33 Flock cameras around the city.
Tempe cites misuse concerns
Woods said the city’s decision followed reports of problems with the technology surfacing at other agencies.
“At the end of the day, we obviously saw over the last couple of months, there were things that were coming out with other agencies where people were misusing them and they were finding sort of irregularities in some of their audits,” Woods said.
Tempe City Councilmember Bobby Nichols said the scope of data the cameras collect was part of the concern.
“When a camera captures every single car that goes by, that’s where the real risk comes into play,” Nichols said.
Nichols said he believes moving away from Flock will benefit residents and their data.
“I think people started to get the understanding that we were able to move away from this and moving away from this would actually make our residents a little bit safer and protect our data across the board,” Nichols said. “We needed to get rid of these cameras. We needed to stop looking for other ALPR providers.”
Residents weigh in on surveillance
The moves come as some residents say they are reconsidering how much surveillance they want in daily life.
“I feel like, as a society, it’s better if we’re just kind of, like, not constantly under surveillance. Like, we don’t need cameras watching people all the time,” Andrew Faherty said.
Mike Brown pointed to reports of officers misusing camera systems as a reason for concern.
“I don’t think they need, like I said, extra surveillance. And then what we saw with the police tracking people on them already for personal reasons, I think it just shows that it could be abused,” Brown said.
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Cameras credited with solving crimes
Despite the pullback, police have credited surveillance cameras with helping solve cases. The Phoenix Police Department pointed to a photo enforcement camera that recorded a suspect attacking it as one example of the technology’s evidentiary value.
Sgt. Chris Berrelleza, of the department’s Public Affairs Bureau, said the footage caught the incident clearly.
“You know, in this case, there was video evidence of the suspect walking right up to the camera. So, you know, probably something we weren’t expecting to see so clearly,” Berrelleza said.
Officers have also credited the cameras with helping locate suspects and assisting with missing person cases. As more cities move away from Flock Safety, some are turning to Axon for license plate readers instead.
The shift leaves an open question for Arizona communities: whether residents and officials have grown weary of the level of oversight the cameras represent, even as police continue to point to cases the technology has helped solve.
Other Valley cities end ALPR use
Tempe is the latest Arizona city to end its use of the Flock camera system amid privacy concerns from the public and recent reports of other cities’ misuse of the technology.
RELATED: Several Arizona agencies halt Flock cameras amid misuse cases
The town of Cave Creek says it is ending its contract with Flock Safety license plate reading cameras, effective immediately, following privacy concerns and a recent camera theft.
Chandler is also immediately discontinuing use of its cameras after finding an “anomaly” during an audit.
Meanwhile, Apache Junction continues to use its Flock cameras despite a former officer misusing the system to track down his wife, arguing that the cameras have been helpful in finding missing people and criminals.
Tempe police said that it hasn’t found any improper use of its system in its monthly audits.
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