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PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Surprise Police have suspended their use of Flock cameras, making them the fourth Arizona law enforcement agency in a week to report that license plate readers were being used out of policy.
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The suspension comes as multiple Valley departments face scrutiny over how officers accessed the automated license plate reader technology.
Chandler Police pulled their cameras after an employee may have misused the system.
Goodyear Police launched a criminal investigation into one of its officers over Flock access.
Tempe Police announced it will stop sharing data from its 33 cameras and has implemented a transparency portal that shows the department searched the system more than 700 times in the last 30 days.
AI audit tool behind wave of disclosures
Flock Safety, one of the leading vendors of the technology, says the surge in reported cases is a result of its own AI audit tool, which the company rolled out in April. The company says police departments are implementing the tool and identifying concerning trends. 60 police departments across Arizona use Flock cameras.
Documented benefits
Departments across the state have pointed to cases where the technology produced results.
Buckeye Police credit the cameras with tracking down an armed road rage suspect in March. Casa Grande Police say they used the technology to locate a homicide suspect’s car at a home after a neighboring department requested help last month. In Apache Junction, investigators say the cameras were used to locate a missing 13-year-old who was the subject of a Turquoise Alert.
“This young girl was taken by a 68-year-old individual, stranger, completely unknown — who no one would have known where this girl was had we not issued a Turquoise Alert and had license plate reading technology,” Apache Junction Police Chief Mike Pooley said.
Officer resigned after tracking wife
It was at that same event that Chief Pooley announced one of his officers resigned after using Flock cameras to track his wife.
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“This technology is rife for abuse and it’s not new news,” said Katelynn Contreras with the ACLU of Arizona.
City review, legislative effort
Tempe Councilman Bobby Nichols, who opposes Flock cameras, says the city is reviewing its data to determine whether the technology has made the city safer.
“Even if 99.9 percent of people are going to use it responsibly, it’s that .1% who are causing problems,” Nichols said. “If we’re using Flock, it has to be a narrowly tailored solution to a compelling government concern,” he added.
Contreras said safeguards should be in place and that the communities the readers are helping protect should be given a voice in the process. She said there are ways to put guardrails in place to ensure data is used responsibly.
A bill that would have established some safeguards was introduced in the state Senate during the last legislative session but failed to advance.
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