Who in Scottsdale is balking at Flock cameras
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Officials across the political spectrum nationwide — and in Scottsdale — are pushing back against license plate readers made by Flock and similar companies, fueled by privacy concerns and suspected police misuse.
Why it matters: Recent audits have revealed potential misuse of the Flock system, which allows police agencies to track the location of almost anyone. But it's unclear whether Scottsdale will abandon its Flock cameras for good.
The big picture: Flock has over 120,000 cameras across the country, the company tells Axios.
- Advocates say the cameras help quickly track down criminals, making cities safer.
- Opponents say they're a form of constant surveillance that infringes on residents' civil liberties. Some have even turned to sabotaging the cameras.
Zoom in: Scottsdale installed the Flock system in 2023, with 85 cameras currently operational.
- The existing contract expires in June 2028. The city didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Axios about the use of cameras.
What they're saying: Although the City Council hasn't raised this issue in a recent session, some members have called for the removal of the cameras.
- Councilmember Solange Whitehead, who often disagrees with the council's conservative majority, tells Axios this is uniting the council.
- "Keeping Scottsdale one of the safest cities in the nation, and protecting our privacy are Scottsdale's top priorities," she tells Axios. "We have to end immediately the Flock contract and get rid of the cameras because they violated residents' trust."
Councilmember Barry Graham, a conservative who is in the November runoff, also said he is concerned about the potential abuse of this technology, adding: "It's an emerging issue, and right now we are talking to city staff about it because I think residents' right to privacy outweighs the benefits of constant and intrusive surveillance."
Threat level: Council candidate Michelle Ugenti-Rita, who is also in the runoff, noted that cities aren't completely abandoning license plate recognition technology; they're simply "moving from one system to another."
- Flock's logo on cameras isn't the issue, she added in a social media post. "It's whether government can use this technology to build a record of where law-abiding people go without a warrant," she said.
- Yes, but: Scottsdale Vice Mayor Maryann McAllen, who supports the cameras, pushed back, saying, "There's nothing wrong with bringing it up, see how it's used in Scottsdale and explain it to people."
The latest: Flock said last week that it's improving its privacy, security and accountability features.
- It's making misuse detection mandatory for all customers, and cutting default data retention settings to one week from 30 days in some places.
- The company tells Axios via email that the changes "come following a year of listening to customers, communities, and civil liberties groups and build on Flock's impact" in aiding about 1 million police investigations last year and helping find about 10,000 missing people.
Zoom out: Several Valley police departments have flagged issues with their systems in recent weeks.
- Four Arizona cities — Goodyear, Surprise, Chandler and Apache Junction — said they're looking into officers' use of the cameras.
- Chandler and Surprise canceled their Flock contracts, and Tempe shut off the ability of other departments to search its Flock database, though it will keep its system operational.
What we're watching: Whitehead says she hopes to bring up the issue in the City Council meeting next week.