Chandler residents headed to city hall over vote on license plate cameras

CHANDLER, AZ — Chandler residents who oppose automated license plate reader cameras plan to fill City Hall on Thursday night as the city council prepares to vote on whether to renew its contract with Flock Safety.

The city currently operates 40 Flock cameras citywide. The vote would renew that contract for just over $153,000.

Nathan Taylortaft, co-director of East Valley Unite, is organizing residents to attend Thursday’s meeting and push the city to cut ties with Flock.

“This mass surveillance of the public without consent is a key concern,” Taylortaft said.

His group has outlined 4 concerns about the system.

“We have four main concerns, mass surveillance, two is security, three is backing by billionaires, and four is targeting of Hispanic communities,” Taylortaft said.

Chandler police say the data shows the system is working. Since July and through April of this year, the cameras have generated 556 stolen-vehicle notifications leading to 16 recoveries, 94 arrest warrant alerts resulting in 8 warrants cleared, 22 missing or endangered person alerts with 9 people located, and 39 total arrests.

Council Member OD Harris acknowledged the tension between results and trust.

“We will have a conversation of, do we really see the outcomes, and the community will say we see the outcomes, we see the positive outcomes, but do we trust the vendor? And the answer to that, currently right now, in Chandler, is no,” Harris said.

The biggest flashpoint in the debate is whether federal immigration authorities can access the data collected by the cameras. Chandler Police Chief Bryan Chapman pushed back on that concern directly.

“It’s, I would say, misinformation to be construing that that information is being shared with ICE and they are taking action on it whatsoever,” Chapman said.

A Flock Safety representative also addressed the council, saying Chandler owns 100% of the data collected and that it is secure. Flock Safety has not responded to a direct request for comment.

The company says it has no contracts with ICE or any agency under the Department of Homeland Security, and that each city owns its own data and controls who it’s shared with. On privacy, Flock says its cameras capture a single image of the rear of a vehicle in a public space and cannot fully track a vehicle’s movements. The company also points to more than 30 court rulings nationwide finding the system does not violate the Fourth Amendment.

The city council meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday.