Tempe councilmember proposes ban on automated license plate readers after city ends Flock contract

Our Take

Credit to ABC15 Arizona for catching a move that a lot of cities skip: turning a contract cancellation into an actual policy. Ending a deal with Flock Safety is a good first step, but contracts expire, budgets get renegotiated, and new vendors show up with the same tech under a different logo. A councilmember pushing for an outright ban on automated license plate readers is trying to make sure Tempe doesn't just take a pause on mass surveillance — it takes it off the table.

This is the distinction that matters everywhere ALPRs show up. Cities love to frame these systems as a "tool" that can be turned on or off depending on the political mood, but the underlying problem — a network that logs where every car goes, retained and searchable, often shared across agencies and jurisdictions with little oversight — doesn't go away just because one contract lapses. A ban written into law is harder to quietly reverse than a budget line item that a new council or a new police chief can revive next year.

Tempe residents pushing this fight forward should be watching whether the ban actually has teeth — covering not just Flock but any similar ALPR vendor, and closing loopholes like data-sharing agreements with neighboring departments. Check our camera map to see what's already deployed near you, and if you want to push your own city council toward a real ban instead of a quiet pause, our take action page has what you need to get started.