Flock cameras in Arizona: Which cities use license plate readers?

Our Take

Credit to 12 News for doing the unglamorous work of actually tallying which Arizona agencies have plugged into Flock Safety's network. That kind of accounting matters because most residents have no idea how many of these cameras are logging their daily movements, or how easily that data can hop between departments through Flock's sharing network. "Misuse" isn't a hypothetical here — it's the predictable result of giving cops a searchable archive of everyone's comings and goings with minimal guardrails on who can query it and why.

What local reporting like this tends to undercount is the sheer density once you start mapping camera by camera instead of city by city. A handful of agencies on a list sounds modest; seeing the actual intersections lit up on a map is a different experience entirely. That's exactly why we built our camera map — so Arizonans can see precisely which corners near their homes, schools, and workplaces are getting scanned, rather than trusting a press release about "public safety."

Misuse cases like the ones this story flags should be the floor for public concern, not the ceiling. Every one of these systems runs on audit logs that are rarely checked, policies that are rarely enforced, and vendor contracts that are rarely read by the city councils approving them. If you live in one of these Arizona cities, that's your opening — public meetings and records requests are still the most reliable way to force transparency. Check our take-action resources for how to push back.