The debate over license plate readers

Our Take

KOLD News 13 out of Tucson is the latest local outlet to frame automated license plate readers as a "debate," and credit where it's due: getting this topic in front of a mainstream news audience matters. But these segments almost always stop at the surface-level back-and-forth — police say it solves crime, some residents say they're uneasy — without digging into who owns the data, how long it's stored, who else can access it, and whether any of it actually reduces crime the way vendors like Flock Safety claim.

That's the gap we try to fill. Tucson, like hundreds of other cities, likely has Flock cameras logging every vehicle that passes, building a searchable history of where you've been and when, regardless of whether you're suspected of anything. Local news can raise the question; it rarely answers it. We'd rather show you exactly where these cameras are.

If you're in Arizona or anywhere else, check our camera map to see what's been documented near you, and if you want to push back on unchecked ALPR expansion in your city, our take-action page has concrete steps.