Surprise councilmember talks Flock Safety on The Gaggle

Our Take

When azcentral.com's Ron Hansen and Stephanie sit down with Surprise Councilmember Johnny Melton to talk Flock Safety, it's a small but telling moment. City councils across the country approved these camera networks fast, often with little public debate, and now some of the same officials are the ones publicly working through the fallout. We give credit to The Arizona Republic's Gaggle team for pulling a sitting councilmember on record instead of letting this stay a staff-level talking point.

This is exactly the pattern we track: a vendor pitches ALPR cameras as a narrow tool for stolen cars and Amber Alerts, a council signs off, and only later does anyone start asking who else can query the data, how long it's kept, and whether residents ever had a real say. Surprise isn't unique — it's one more city realizing that 'surveillance infrastructure' and 'public safety tool' aren't always the same thing, and that oversight has to be built in up front, not bolted on after the cameras are already running.

If you want to see whether your own city has Flock Safety or similar ALPR cameras already deployed, check our camera map, and if you'd rather not wait for your council to have this conversation on video, our take-action page has concrete steps for raising it yourself.