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The License-Plate Reader File · ArizonaIn reporting · updated Oct. 28, 2026

Who is reading your plate?
County by county.

Arizona has no state law on police use of license-plate readers: a 2026 Senate bill died without a final vote, and Attorney General Kris Mayes began a statewide review in August 2026, while Chandler, Tempe, Surprise, Flagstaff, Sedona, Sierra Vista and the Pinal County Sheriff's Office ended their Flock programs in 2025 and 2026.

License-plate readers in other states →

A county’s color reflects any documented agency in it: the sheriff’s office or a city police department. “Not yet checked” is not the same as “none”.

Using license-plate readers
In use; some cameras may have been switched off or removed.
Removing or limiting cameras
Removing cameras beyond state roads, or limiting use, while some remain.
Use suspended
Cameras switched off or use paused; no contract termination reported.
Program documented, current use unconfirmed
Records or reports show the agency bought or used plate readers, but no source found confirms whether they are still in use.
Ended or removed
Contract terminated, program discontinued, or all cameras removed.

Statewide

  1. Feb. 2025 DPS's Local Border Support grant program has paid for local plate-reader cameras in Sierra Vista. The council accepted a $115,472.89 DPS grant in late February 2025 that covered installing 16 plate-reader cameras and running them for a year, plus a drone and a police dog. A later DPS grant of $311,574.35, approved on an unstated date, included $107,200 for two more years of Flock plate-reader monitoring. (Sierra Vista Herald (Herald/Review Media), March 4, 2025; City of Sierra Vista, date not shown)
  2. Jan. 2026 Sen. Kevin Payne (R-Peoria) introduced SB 1111 in the 2026 session to set rules for police use of automated license plate readers. As introduced it limited use to criminal investigations and law-enforcement purposes, barred non-law-enforcement uses, made captured plate data exempt from public records requests, and was backed by the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police and the Arizona Police Association. (KJZZ, Jan. 14, 2026; Arizona Mirror, Jan. 14, 2026)
  3. Jan. 2026 Sen. Mark Finchem introduced SB 1138, which would have required plate-reader data to be stored on an agency-controlled server not maintained by a third party, deleted after 90 days unless needed as evidence, exempted from public review, and accessed only with a criminal case number; unauthorized release by a third party would be a class 1 misdemeanor with a fine of at least $500 per item. A Senate fact sheet was prepared Jan. 23, 2026; no committee vote was found. (Arizona State Legislature, Jan. 2026; Arizona State Senate, Jan. 23, 2026)
  4. Feb. 2026 The Arizona Mirror reported that the Arizona Department of Transportation asked U.S. Customs and Border Protection to stop hiding its roadside plate readers in orange traffic cones, and that CBP was moving the cameras into yellow barrels made to look like crash cushions. The same report said Arizona had no law governing how police use plate readers. (Arizona Mirror, with The Border Chronicle, Feb. 19, 2026)
  5. Feb. 10, 2026 The Senate Appropriations, Transportation and Technology Committee advanced SB 1111, 7-2-1, after adopting a strike-everything amendment from Sen. Finchem that added definitions, permitted uses, training, audit-log and annual-audit requirements, and kept plate data exempt from public records. (Arizona State Senate, Feb. 6, 2026; Arizona Mirror, Feb. 10, 2026; Arizona's Family (republished by KOLD), Sept. 8, 2026)
  6. March 4, 2026 On the Senate floor, senators rejected Sen. Jake Hoffman's amendment that would have limited plate readers to detecting government vehicles on government property, and adopted Sen. Payne's amendment requiring a warrant or a subpoena from a city attorney, county attorney or the attorney general to query plate-reader data (the engrossed text applies this to access more than 48 hours after police are notified of an incident, with listed exceptions). The engrossed bill also made willful misuse of plate-reader data a class 6 felony. The bill received preliminary approval but never got a final third-reading vote, so it died in the Senate. (Arizona Mirror, March 4, 2026; Arizona State Legislature, March 2026; Arizona's Family (republished by KOLD), Sept. 8, 2026)
  7. Aug. 27, 2026 Attorney General Kris Mayes announced a statewide review of Flock Safety and other plate-reader systems: which agencies use them, who can reach the data (including federal and out-of-state agencies) and Fourth Amendment questions, with a report to the Legislature and the Governor's Office before the next session. "We need a statewide approach to this issue," she said. (Arizona's Family, Aug. 27, 2026; KNAU Arizona Public Radio, Aug. 27, 2026)
  8. Aug. 27, 2026 Sen. Jake Hoffman (R) and Sen. Lauren Kuby (D) said they are preparing plate-reader legislation for the 2027 session; Hoffman's office said it is drafting several bills, with ideas including warrant requirements for stored data, limits on access and storage, and a statewide ban or strict limits. (FOX 10 Phoenix, Aug. 27, 2026)

State agencies

Arizona Department of Public Safety

Status
Using license-plate readers
Vendors
Flock Safety
Cameras
Count not documented
No DPS camera count found. Sources show DPS searching plate-reader data, not how many readers DPS itself operates.
  1. July 8, 2019 An Arizona Mirror review of records covering Feb. 2018 to March 2019 reported that DPS kept plate-reader data for one year, shared detection data with more than 250 agencies and received it from 185. (Arizona Mirror, July 8, 2019)
  2. Aug. 14, 2026 In a Flock network search audit covering July 14 to Aug. 14, 2026, obtained by Arizona's Family from Avondale police, DPS ran the most searches of any agency listed, more than 8,500. (Arizona's Family, Sept. 2, 2026)
Conflicts and open questions
  • Operates statewide; headquartered in Phoenix.
  • Flock is listed because DPS appears as a searching agency in a Flock network audit; whether DPS owns or leases its own Flock cameras was not established.

Reported by news outlets; agency records not yet obtained.

Every county

All 15 counties
ApacheUsing license-plate readers1Flock Safety—
CochiseProgram documented, current use unconfirmed2Flock Safety28
CoconinoUsing license-plate readers5Flock Safety67
GilaEnded or removed1Flock Safety—
GrahamNot yet checked———
GreenleeChecked: no program found———
La PazNot yet checked———
MaricopaUsing license-plate readers18Axon, Flock Safety, Motorola Solutions557
MohaveNot yet checked———
NavajoUsing license-plate readers1Flock Safety—
PimaUsing license-plate readers5Axon, Flock Safety, Motorola Solutions, Verkada67
PinalUsing license-plate readers5Axon, Flock Safety132
Santa CruzNot yet checked———
YavapaiUsing license-plate readers6Flock Safety, Motorola Solutions128
YumaUsing license-plate readers5Axon, Flock Safety, Motorola Solutions7

How this map is built

We start with each county’s sheriff’s office and its largest city police departments, then work outward. Each agency’s entry says whether it comes from agency records or from news reports, and links every source. Companies are tracked separately, so the map can show one company’s customers or all license-plate readers together.

Have a contract, invoice or records response for an agency here? Send it to tips@signaldata.org.

Sources