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License-plate readers · Pima County

Pima County

Using license-plate readers · 5 agencies documented

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Marana Police Department

Status
Using license-plate readers
Vendors
Motorola Solutions
  1. Sept. 8, 2026 Town of Marana published a podcast episode in which the town manager and police leadership discussed the department's use of Vigilant automated plate recognition; the chief said the department does not use Flock. (Town of Marana, Sept. 8, 2026; KVOA, Sept. 9, 2026)
Conflicts and open questions
  • Chief Jeffrey Pridgett said the department does not use ALPR to monitor residents' everyday activities and listed permitted uses (stolen vehicles, wanted or missing people) (KVOA).
  • KVOA describes Vigilant as supported by Motorola.

From agency records.

Oro Valley Police Department

Status
Using license-plate readers
Vendors
Flock Safety
Cameras
Count not documented
KOLD (Aug. 24, 2026) says Oro Valley has about 20 Flock cameras; stated only as an approximate comparison, so not entered as a number.
Contract
Flock Safety: $146,000 term · from Jan. 28, 2026 · approved by Oro Valley Town Council · One-year Flock lease for four first-responder drones (two stations, two drones each), funded by a state border support grant. AZPM says Flock's press release describes these drones as having built-in plate-reader cameras. Amount reported as 'about'/'nearly' $146,000. (AZPM, Jan. 30, 2026; Tucson Spotlight, Feb. 6, 2026)
  1. Jan. 28, 2026 Town council unanimously approved a one-year, roughly $146,000 grant-funded lease of four Flock drones; police said the drones fly only for specific calls, not general surveillance. (AZPM, Jan. 30, 2026; Tucson Spotlight, Feb. 6, 2026)
  2. Aug. 24, 2026 KOLD reported Oro Valley has about 20 Flock cameras. (KOLD 13 News, Aug. 24, 2026)
Conflicts and open questions
  • Council meeting was Jan. 28, 2026 (Tucson Spotlight); AZPM says the vote was on a Wednesday, consistent with that date.
  • Fixed-camera count and contract for Oro Valley's fixed Flock readers not found in official records; a records request would confirm.

Reported by news outlets; agency records not yet obtained.

South Tucson Police Department

Status
Ended or removed
Vendors
Flock Safety
Cameras
5
Five sets of cameras/plate readers across the city, per KGUN 9 (Feb. 23, 2026).
Contract
Flock Safety: $20,000 year · to Feb. 17, 2026 · KGUN 9 reports an annual cost of about $20,000. End date is the council vote to cancel; actual removal not confirmed. (KGUN 9, Feb. 23, 2026)
  1. Aug. 11, 2025 South Tucson's Flock cameras were fully installed, per AZPM. (AZPM, Nov. 26, 2025)
  2. Nov. 4, 2025 City council discussed ending the Flock contract and agreed to look into the contract's data-disclosure clauses before a termination vote. (Tucson Spotlight, Nov. 12, 2025)
  3. Feb. 17, 2026 City council voted to cancel the Flock contracts and remove the cameras. Police Chief Danny Denogean said the department disagreed but would comply; officers were told to stop using the cameras. (Tucson Spotlight, Feb. 19, 2026; KGUN 9, Feb. 18, 2026; KGUN 9, Feb. 23, 2026; KGUN 9 / ABC15, March 16, 2026)
Conflicts and open questions
  • Vote tally differs by outlet: KGUN 9 reports 5-2; Tucson Spotlight reports 5-1-1 (one abstention, one no).
  • Police commander presented alternative vendors (Verkada cited as most cost-effective); no replacement chosen as of reporting.
  • Chief Denogean said camera data belonged to the city and was not shared with ICE or the federal government (KGUN 9).
  • Physical removal of cameras not confirmed.

Reported by news outlets; agency records not yet obtained.

Tucson Police Department

Status
Using license-plate readers
Vendors
Verkada, Axon
  1. Oct. 2007 The Arizona Daily Star reported that TPD was rolling out ALPR cameras mounted on patrol cars to find stolen vehicles. The cameras check plates against a state database of wanted and stolen vehicles. (Arizona Daily Star, Oct. 9, 2007)
  2. Nov. 2023 Tucson City Council unanimously backed spending close to $1 million on street-racing enforcement tools, including a mobile speed van, automated license plate readers and gunshot detection. (KJZZ, Nov. 29, 2023)
  3. Oct. 2024 TPD opened its real-time center (Community Safety Awareness and Response Center); per a Verkada-published case study, analysts use LPR hits and LPR watchlists through Verkada cameras feeding Axon Fusus. (Verkada (vendor), date not shown)
  4. May 21, 2026 KOLD reported TPD's plate readers come from Verkada and Axon, not Flock. The department told KOLD it does not share the data with ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations. (KOLD 13 News, May 21, 2026)
Conflicts and open questions
  • Vendor attribution rests on KOLD reporting and a Verkada marketing case study; AZPM also reports TPD uses Verkada cameras with a Fusus integration.
  • AZFamily (Sept. 9, 2026) lists Tucson among cities 'continuing to use Flock'; this conflicts with KOLD and AZPM, which say TPD does not use Flock. Not used.
  • The 2023 council vote date is given only as 'this week' before a Nov. 29, 2023 article; date recorded as YYYY-MM.
  • Tucson City Council June 23, 2026 agenda reportedly included a $60,000 Local Border Support grant budget for UA to plan expanded TPD ALPR use; the agenda page (tucsonaz.hylandcloud.com) could not be opened, so it is listed under unresolved/leads, not here.

Reported by news outlets; agency records not yet obtained.

University of Arizona Police Department

Status
Using license-plate readers
Vendors
Flock Safety
Cameras
62
62 license plate recognition cameras under the UA-Flock contract, per Tucson Spotlight (Nov. 2025), AZCIR (Nov. 2025) and KOLD (Aug. 2026). KOLD also reports 58 active cameras on the Flock transparency portal and separately says the department is 'contracted for 59 cameras'; counts conflict.
Contract
Flock Safety: $870,000 term · from Feb. 2025 · Five-year agreement, about $160,000 a year, renews annually unless canceled 30 days before expiration; signed February 2025 by the university's then-chief procurement officer, per the contract obtained by Tucson Spotlight. (Tucson Spotlight, Nov. 12, 2025; KOLD 13 News, Aug. 24, 2026)
  1. Feb. 2025 University of Arizona signed a five-year, $870,000 agreement with Flock Safety covering 62 plate-reader cameras on campus. (Tucson Spotlight, Nov. 12, 2025; Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting, Nov. 14, 2025)
  2. Oct. 2025 A new UAPD policy took effect limiting sharing to pre-approved Arizona agencies and requiring prior approval for national queries; UAPD acknowledged its system had earlier been part of a national sharing network. (AZPM, Nov. 26, 2025)
  3. Aug. 24, 2026 KOLD reported the Flock transparency portal showed 58 active UAPD cameras that detected more than 156,000 unique plates in 30 days, with data shared with more than 64 Arizona agencies. A committee of students, staff and community members was reviewing the system. (KOLD 13 News, Aug. 24, 2026)
Conflicts and open questions
  • KOLD reports a UAPD policy effective December 2025; AZPM reports a policy created Oct. 1 (2025). Both dates recorded as reported.
  • KOLD reports the university's chief safety officer said in fall 2025 that the university was not sharing data with the federal government; in Aug. 2026 a spokesperson referred KOLD to the university's ALPR webpage, which shows no federal sharing.

Reported by news outlets; agency records not yet obtained.

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.