Which Arizona cities use license plate readers?

Our Take

Credit to 12 News for doing the unglamorous work of simply asking which Arizona departments have plugged into the Flock network — that basic transparency is still missing in most states, and reporters have to drag it out city by city. The detail that stands out isn't the technology itself, it's the admission that officers have already "misused" the system. That's not a hypothetical civil-liberties concern anymore; it's a documented pattern, and it's happening in a state that's been rapidly wiring up intersections with little public debate before the cameras went live.

This is the core problem with ALPR rollouts nationwide: departments buy first and build guardrails later, if at all. Once a camera network exists, the temptation to query it for reasons that have nothing to do with the original justification — missing persons, stolen cars — is apparently too easy to resist, and audit logs only matter if someone is actually reviewing them. Arizona residents now have real evidence that the "trust us" model doesn't hold up.

If you live in one of the cities mentioned, check our camera map to see exactly where these readers are pointed in your area, and use our take-action resources to push your city council for real audit requirements, not just policy language nobody enforces.