Cochise County

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)

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