Amid growing concern of Fourth Amendment violations and law enforcement misuse, nearly a dozen Arizona communities have decided to end their use of automated license plate readers, or ALPRs.
The city of Cottonwood and town of Payson recently ended their Flock programs, bringing the total number of Flock contract terminations in the state to 11. That’s the third highest rate for cancellations in the nation, according to the Institute for Justice.
In separate social media posts, Cottonwood and Payson officials acknowledged the cancellations were done in the interest of returning public trust.
The Town of Queen Creek announced in August that it was working on a new ordinance for ALPR use in response to public safety concerns. Last week, the council voted unanimously to approve the ordinance. Here’s what it covers.
Stronger punishment for officer misuse
There are no state laws in Arizona that make it illegal to misuse Flock data. That’s according to Queen Creek Police Chief Randy Brice, who says his town is the first in the state to provide legal guardrails for the technology.
Brice says Flock data falls outside of the criminal justice information system network — a national database storing criminal histories and biometric data — which means, “it's not illegal to use that stuff for personal use.”
“[Queen Creek] certainly has policies in place that we will fire somebody for those kinds of things, but there’s no crime anywhere in the state of Arizona for that kind of access or misuse,” said Brice at the Sept. 2 Queen Creek Town Council meeting.
Queen Creek defines misuse as accessing Flock data outside of approved investigations; using data to stalk, harass or intimidate someone; or selling data to third party vendors, among other rules.
Following Wednesday’s vote, these actions are now a class 1 misdemeanor under Queen Creek’s town code.
“Now, the caveat to this is it’s ‘knowing misuse,’” Brice said. “It can’t be accidental. It can’t be inadvertent.”
Restrictions on data sharing and storing
Brice says their Flock system only stores data for 30 days. The ordinance also says that data can only be shared with verified and authorized recipients and that any contract with an ALPR provider must include a provision that gathered data won’t be sold to third parties.
For now, Brice says his department only shares ALPR information with other local police departments.
“We do not share with federal partners, and we do not allow this to be used for any type of immigration or reproductive investigations,” said Brice.
However, there’s nothing in the ordinance to mandate this, or to stop partnered police departments from sharing Queen Creek’s information with outside agencies — a point made by Eric Fowler, chair of the Maricopa County Libertarian Party, who spoke during public comment.
“The sharing rule is one line only: ‘any verified and authorized recipient.’ Not one word excludes a federal or out-of-state agency. And Mesa already runs Flock searches for DHS,” Fowler said. “This isn’t a safeguard; it’s a permission slip for mass surveillance with a misdemeanor attached to it.”
Annual program audits
During a presentation of the proposed code, Brice said he anticipated his staff may audit internal use of Flock data, “weekly, monthly, quarterly, depending on the capability of the systems, but it is a continuous process, not one and done,” he said.
The new town code as approved only requires a public audit “at least annually.”
Council support for Flock
Brice says 47 installed ALPRs have assisted in over 3,000 incidents since 2025, and 15 more cameras are being installed and going through testing. He says they are used routinely for road rage or hit-and-run investigations.
On occasion, he said, they’ve been successful at tracking down vehicles carrying missing or endangered persons across the state.
“We have had time and time again, here in our community and in our adjacent communities, where [ALPRs] have actually found and brought back people that are missing,” said Brice.
The support ALPRs have provided in these investigations seemed to loom large among the council members who spoke in favor of the ordinance and for keeping Flock systems in place.
“Queen Creek sadly faces very specific challenges with respect to missing-from-care youth,” Councilmember Jeff Brown said. “Taking away this technology would make our efforts to protect these kids so much more difficult.”
Mayor Wheatley acknowledged local and national concerns about ALPRs but says that, after talking to local law enforcement, she believes they are a useful and invaluable tool. She says they haven’t had any cases of misuse and that the ordinance is being put forward as a way to address the community concerns that have been shared.
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