New records detail Arizona Flock camera misuse. What they reveal

Our Take

Credit to Arizona's Family (3TV/CBS 5) for digging up the internal affairs file on former Apache Junction Officer Joshua McDaniel. This is exactly the kind of accountability journalism that Flock Safety and its police partners would rather you never see: a sworn officer admitting he used license plate reader data for something it was never supposed to be used for. Departments love to tell the public that ALPR networks are tightly audited and only used for 'legitimate investigations.' Records like these are a reminder that audits only catch misuse when someone actually looks, and that the person with access to the system is the same person deciding whether to abuse it.

This isn't an isolated glitch — it's the predictable outcome of building a nationwide surveillance grid and then trusting individual officers' judgment as the only check on it. Flock's own marketing leans on the idea that every search is logged and reviewable, but a log only matters if agencies actually review it, discipline people when they find violations, and tell the public about it. Apache Junction's internal affairs process worked this time because reporters forced it into the open. Most misuse never gets that kind of scrutiny.

If there's a Flock camera network near you, you deserve to know it exists and who can tap into it. Check our camera map to see what's already watching your community, and visit our take-action page if you want to push your city council or police department for real transparency and audit rules before the next officer decides the rules don't apply to them.