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License-plate readers · Washoe County

Washoe County

Using license-plate readers · 3 agencies documented

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Reno Police Department

Status
Using license-plate readers
Vendors
Flock Safety, Axon
Cameras
29
29 active Flock cameras per Flock's transparency portal, as reported by This Is Reno in July 2026. Sources disagree: the portal copy we opened shows 18 cameras with a 'last updated' date of Sept. 23, 2025; a staff report cited by This Is Reno lists 31 downtown plus 10 on major roads (41); The Nevada Independent says at least 40. Planned expansion: KOLO (Oct. 2026) says the Axon deal includes more than 200 readers. This Is Reno (July 2026) separately cited city documents showing plans to grow the network to more than 100 devices; that sentence does not name Axon and predates the Axon vote, so the two figures are not competing Axon counts.
Contract
Flock Safety: $450,000 term · from Nov. 2024 · to March 2027 · Three-year contract per This Is Reno, paid with federal pandemic relief money, covering Raven gunshot detection and about 40 camera systems. November 2024 is the council approval, not a confirmed start date. The Nevada Independent says it runs to 'mid-March' and will not be renewed; the year 2027 is our inference from the October 2026 reporting, and a three-year term counted from the approval would not end in March 2027, so the end date needs the contract. (KTVN 2 News, date not shown; The Nevada Independent, Oct. 9, 2026; This Is Reno, Nov. 2024)
Contract
Axon: $21,800,000 total · from Jan. 1, 2027 · Eight-year agreement. Covers plate readers (fixed and in patrol cars), body cameras, Tasers, drones and AI report-drafting software; The Nevada Independent says most of the value is equipment Reno police already use from Axon, so this is not a plate-reader-only price. Nevada Current states it as $22 million. The start is reported as 'Jan. 1'; the year 2027 is inferred. (The Nevada Independent, Oct. 22, 2026; Route Fifty, reprinting Nevada Current (original would not open), Oct. 23, 2026)
Sources
KTVN 2 News, date not shown; Associated Press, on The Washington Times, Dec. 8, 2019; The Nevada Independent, Oct. 22, 2026; The Nevada Independent, Oct. 9, 2026; KOLO, on FOX5 Vegas, Oct. 22, 2026; MuckRock, Sept. 19, 2022; Flock Safety, Sept. 23, 2025; Reno News & Review, July 21, 2026; Route Fifty, reprinting Nevada Current (original would not open), Oct. 23, 2026; This Is Reno, Nov. 2024; This Is Reno, July 2026
  1. Dec. 2019 The Associated Press reported that the Reno council unanimously approved up to $117,000 in federal grant money for Vigilant Solutions readers, six fixed and two mobile, and that public documents showed Immigration and Customs Enforcement had received Reno plate data. (Associated Press, on The Washington Times, Dec. 8, 2019)
  2. Nov. 2024 The Reno City Council unanimously approved a $450,000 Flock Safety contract for gunshot detection and about 40 plate-reading camera systems, This Is Reno reported. (This Is Reno, Nov. 2024; This Is Reno, July 2026)
  3. Oct. 2026 City Manager Jackie Bryant told the mayor and council that Reno would not renew its Flock contract, The Nevada Independent reported; officials confirmed it to the outlet the next day. The article reports no council vote on the non-renewal. (The Nevada Independent, Oct. 9, 2026)
  4. Oct. 21, 2026 The Reno City Council voted 5-2 for an eight-year, $21.8 million Axon agreement that includes plate readers; Mayor Hillary Schieve and Councilmember Meghan Ebert voted no. Conditions added by Councilmember Devon Reese include deleting plate data not tied to an investigation after 15 days, quarterly audits and public reports, council approval of new surveillance technology, and exit on 30 days' notice without penalty. The item returns to the council if Axon rejects the conditions. (The Nevada Independent, Oct. 22, 2026; KOLO, on FOX5 Vegas, Oct. 22, 2026; Route Fifty, reprinting Nevada Current (original would not open), Oct. 23, 2026)
Conflicts and open questions
  • Date of the Nov. 2024 vote: sources give only 'Wednesday', so YYYY-MM is used. Non-renewal notice: sources give only 'Thursday', the day before the Oct. 9, 2026 article, so YYYY-MM is used.
  • Oct. 21, 2026: The Nevada Independent's Oct. 9 article names the Oct. 21 meeting and its Oct. 22 article says the vote was Wednesday.
  • Flock contract still runs until mid-March, so Reno has both vendors in the record during the changeover; no source confirms a date for removing Flock cameras, or whether Axon accepted the council's conditions.
  • Written comments on the Axon item: 71 opposed, 5 supported, 3 neutral or concerned, of 79, per The Nevada Independent.
  • Retention under Flock: 30 days, per the portal copy and Reno News & Review. Chief Corey Solferino said searches require a case number and are logged and audited, and that federal agencies would not have access under the Axon deal (The Nevada Independent).
  • Data sharing, the portal copy (updated Sept. 23, 2025) lists about 295 outside organizations by our count; Reno News & Review reported 507 at press time in July 2026.
  • Reno News & Review reported that the Flock contract lets the company pass data to others when it judges that 'reasonably necessary' for legal process or for security, privacy, fraud or technical reasons, without defining the term, and that the department permitted the company to collect, analyze and anonymize its data to train machine-learning algorithms. No finding on either point; we did not open the contract.
  • The Nevada Independent wrote that the city has reportedly blocked the release of some records on Flock camera use. This Is Reno separately reported that Reno refused an Electronic Frontier Foundation researcher's request for audit information, citing confidentiality.
  • Portal copy statistics as displayed (updated Sept. 23, 2025): 209,478 vehicles, 444 hotlist hits and 120 searches in 30 days.
  • A public-records request for Reno's plate-reader records, filed in Sept. 2022 and extended repeatedly through at least Dec. 2023, was later marked satisfied in an undated message, but the released records are not visible on the MuckRock page.

Reported by news outlets; agency records not yet obtained.

Sparks Police Department

Status
Using license-plate readers
Vendors
Axon, Flock Safety
Cameras
47
47 active Flock cameras per Flock's portal, as reported by This Is Reno in July 2026. the portal copy we opened shows 45 with a 'last updated' date of Nov. 18, 2025. No count found for the Axon readers replacing them.
Contract
Flock Safety: $102,000 term · from March 2025 · Two-year contract for 17 additional cameras, per KOLO. Later council action not to renew Flock was reported by This Is Reno; end date not found. (KOLO, March 24, 2025; This Is Reno, July 2026)
Contract
Axon: $1,000,000 total · from June 2026 · Five-year contract. This Is Reno states $1 million; The Nevada Independent states 'nearly $1 million'. exact figure needs the contract. The June date is the approval, not a start date. (The Nevada Independent, Oct. 22, 2026; This Is Reno, June 2026)
Sources
The Nevada Independent, March 22, 2026; The Nevada Independent, Oct. 22, 2026; The Nevada Independent, Oct. 9, 2026; KOLO, March 24, 2025; Flock Safety, Nov. 18, 2025; This Is Reno, July 2026; This Is Reno, June 2026
  1. March 2025 The Sparks City Council unanimously approved a two-year, $102,000 Flock contract for 17 more plate-reader cameras, KOLO reported. (KOLO, March 24, 2025)
  2. June 2026 The Sparks City Council unanimously approved a five-year Axon plate-reader contract of about $1 million, after public comment urging rejection. Chief Chris Crawforth said Axon gives the city more control over its data, This Is Reno reported. (The Nevada Independent, Oct. 22, 2026; This Is Reno, June 2026)
  3. July 2026 This Is Reno reported that the council had voted not to renew Flock and was moving to Axon readers. It also reported that on New Year's Day (year not given) dozens of police departments searched for vehicles on a shared network, with agencies in Arizona, Florida, Michigan and Ohio searching footage from Sparks cameras taken on Christmas Day, and a Louisiana sheriff's office doing so per Electronic Frontier Foundation records. It also reported the foundation's finding of Flock use for immigration enforcement, including in Sparks. No finding on the merits. (This Is Reno, July 2026)
Conflicts and open questions
  • March 2025 and June 2026 vote dates: the sources do not state a calendar date (June reported only as 'Monday'), so YYYY-MM is used.
  • The Nevada Independent reported in March 2026 that a records request showed 420,506 plates read by Sparks police in 2018 on Vigilant Solutions technology, and that police had not immediately answered whether that agreement was still in force.
  • Portal copy statistics as displayed (updated Nov. 18, 2025): 403,596 vehicles, 4,148 hotlist hits and 664 searches in 30 days; 30-day retention; 265 outside organizations.
  • No source confirms the date Flock cameras came down or Axon readers went live.

Reported by news outlets; agency records not yet obtained.

Washoe County Sheriff's Office

Status
Using license-plate readers
Vendors
Flock Safety
Cameras
Count not documented
No reader count established. About 120 cameras were bought by the office for regional deployment, per a March 26, 2025 presentation to the county parks commission and The Nevada Independent; neither establishes that all 120 read plates. The Nevada Independent also reports at least 180 Flock cameras in Washoe County overall, from public police data, without attributing that total to the sheriff's office.
Sources
The Nevada Independent, March 22, 2026; ACLU, Sept. 12, 2012; Biometric Update, May 26, 2026; MuckRock, Sept. 19, 2022; This Is Reno, July 2026; Washoe County Open Space and Regional Parks Commission, March 26, 2025; Washoe County, Nov. 19, 2024; Washoe County Sheriff's Office, date not shown
  1. Sept. 12, 2012 In a letter to the ACLU of Nevada, the Washoe County District Attorney said the sheriff's office had two federally purchased plate-reader units on marked patrol vehicles, in a testing phase, and that they often did not work. (ACLU, Sept. 12, 2012)
  2. 2022 A public-records request filed through MuckRock on Sept. 19, 2022, which the sheriff's office logged as received on Oct. 18, 2022, drew a reply that it had no responsive documents on plate readers. The reply is undated on the page. (MuckRock, Sept. 19, 2022)
  3. March 26, 2025 A sheriff's office presentation to the county Open Space and Regional Parks Commission said the office had purchased about 120 cameras for regional deployment, nine park sites would take part at no cost to the parks budget, and a regional real-time center expected to open in June 2025 would draw on sources including license plate readers. (Washoe County Open Space and Regional Parks Commission, March 26, 2025)
  4. March 2026 The Nevada Independent reported that the office's camera network mixes Flock units with park cameras the county owns and equipment operated by outside partners. (The Nevada Independent, March 22, 2026)
Conflicts and open questions
  • Current use: the sheriff's Northern Nevada Regional Intelligence Center page lists 'Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR) Cameras' among its programs and links an 'ALPR Camera Transparency Portal' to a Flock Safety address. The page is undated; we read it on Nov. 3, 2026.
  • No contract or county commission vote for the cameras was found. A Nov. 19, 2024 commission item amended the office's Axon agreement (not to exceed $32,243,367.44 over 120 months) and covers fleet in-car cameras; the documents we read do not mention plate readers, so Axon is not listed as a reader vendor.
  • Biometric Update reported in May 2026 that the sheriff's office, Sparks police and Reno police are the three agencies in a regional real-time center.

From agency records.

Statewide

  1. 2025 NRS 484A.600 bars governments and their agents from using photographic, video or digital equipment to gather evidence for traffic or civil infraction citations, except for cameras worn or held by peace officers, equipment in law enforcement vehicles or facilities, and equipment owned by a nongovernmental entity. It limits citation use and does not address plate-reader data collection. FindLaw cautions its copy may not reflect the latest version. (FindLaw, Jan. 1, 2025)
  2. March 22, 2026 The Nevada Independent reported Nevada has no laws regulating plate-reader cameras, that its search found no 2025 bills on them, and that at least five Nevada cities and counties had made Flock agreements over the prior three years. (The Nevada Independent, March 22, 2026)
  3. June 2026 At a June meeting of the interim Judiciary Committee, a representative of the Clark County Public Defender's office called for state action on the technology, the Nevada Current reported. The Review-Journal reported that public defenders in Clark and Washoe counties proposed the bill the committee later requested. (Nevada Current, Sept. 2, 2026; Las Vegas Review-Journal, Aug. 28, 2026)
  4. Aug. 2026 The Joint Interim Standing Committee on the Judiciary voted unanimously to have staff draft a bill for the 2027 session. As reported, it would require agencies using plate readers to adopt written policies, train users, undergo independent audits and report annually to the attorney general, governor and Legislature, based on a Legislative Analysis and Public Policy Association model policy. It is one of up to 15 measures the committee may request. No bill text or BDR number was found. Reports give the day as a Tuesday; a committee brief had tentatively set the final meeting for Aug. 25, 2026. (The Nevada Independent, Aug. 27, 2026; Nevada Legislative Counsel Bureau, Research Division, 2026; KSNV News 3, Sept. 9, 2026; Las Vegas Review-Journal, Aug. 28, 2026)
  5. Aug. 2026 The Nevada Latino Legislative Caucus urged agencies to suspend use of the Flock network until "binding safeguards, meaningful public oversight, and clear accountability measures are established," the Nevada Current reported. News 3 placed the call a few days after the committee vote; the Current reported it by Sept. 2, so the exact date is not established. (Nevada Current, Sept. 2, 2026; KSNV News 3, Sept. 9, 2026)
  6. Aug. 2026 Attorney General Aaron Ford, a candidate for governor, said through his campaign that he does not support Flock cameras until protections are in place. "Until Nevadans have these protections, I do not support the use of Flock cameras," the Review-Journal quoted him. The Nevada Current reported his campaign says he is open to a ban. These are statements; no attorney general opinion or enforcement action on plate readers was found. The Nevada Independent's Sept. 1 newsletter says he gave it the statement on a Thursday; the quote was published Aug. 28. (Nevada Current, Sept. 2, 2026; The Nevada Independent, Sept. 1, 2026; Las Vegas Review-Journal, Aug. 28, 2026)
  7. Aug. 27, 2026 KOLO/FOX5 reported that legislative legal staff described how state law governs officer conduct "according to the Model Act": the cameras may be used to investigate past crimes and the movement of people, vehicles and locations, but not to issue citations. The same report says no law explicitly governs Flock cameras, and it does not say Nevada has adopted the Model Act. (KOLO / Gray, Aug. 27, 2026)
  8. Sept. 2026 Gov. Joe Lombardo, through a spokesman, backed "responsible use" of these tools with "strong safeguards," and declined to say what guardrails he would support or whether he would support a ban, the Nevada Current reported. The statement itself is undated. No executive order on plate readers was found. (Nevada Current, Sept. 2, 2026; FOX5 Las Vegas (KVVU), Sept. 8, 2026)
  9. Sept. 1, 2026 The Nevada Independent reported Flock hired four lobbyists in Nevada during the 2025 session and advocated for a 2025 bill on law enforcement drone purchases, and that three of those lobbyists also represented Axon. (The Nevada Independent, Sept. 1, 2026)
  10. Sept. 9, 2026 The ACLU of Nevada announced that Assemblymember Selena La Rue Hatch (D-Reno) will introduce a 2027 bill, backed by the group, to prohibit Flock and other plate-reader networks in Nevada. The release gives no BDR number, exemptions or penalties. Executive Director Athar Haseebullah has said regulation is not enough and questioned whether existing use is constitutional, saying the Legislature never authorized it; the Nevada Current reported the group is exploring lawsuits. (ACLU of Nevada, Sept. 9, 2026; Nevada Current, Sept. 2, 2026; This Is Reno, Sept. 2026)
  11. Sept. 18, 2026 The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported La Rue Hatch had submitted a bill draft request to ban plate readers and their networks, and that a Flock spokesperson, without addressing the ban directly, said the company supports "thoughtful, bipartisan legislation." (Las Vegas Review-Journal, Sept. 18, 2026)
  12. Oct. 28, 2026 FOX5 Las Vegas reported the ACLU of Nevada and La Rue Hatch were working on a bill draft request for the next session, and repeated the positions of Lombardo, Ford and Las Vegas Metro Sheriff Kevin McMahill, who called plate readers essential tools. The 2027 session begins Feb. 1, 2027, the Nevada Current reported. (Nevada Current, Sept. 2, 2026; FOX5 Las Vegas (KVVU), Oct. 28, 2026)

State agencies

Nevada Highway Patrol (Nevada Department of Public Safety)

Status
Program documented, current use unconfirmed
Vendors
Drivewyze
Cameras
Count not documented
No current count found. The Review-Journal reported one truck-screening van finished and a second expected within several months as of December 2024, each with a plate reader in front and a thermal camera in back.
Sources
GovTech, Dec. 17, 2024; MuckRock, Sept. 19, 2022; Las Vegas Review-Journal, Dec. 2024
  1. Aug. 2009 In a records response, NHP said it had four plate readers assigned in August 2009 and no longer has them or any related data. (MuckRock, Sept. 19, 2022)
  2. 2022 Responding to a public records request filed Sept. 19, 2022, NHP wrote: "Currently, we (the NHP) do not utilize Automated License Plate Readers (ALPR's), either mobile or stationary." It said it had bought Axon Fleet 3 but does not use its plate-reader function, has no plate-reader training or policies, and knows of no sharing agreements with other agencies. The response carries no date we could read; it follows an agency notice estimating completion by Dec. 30, 2022, so it did not come in the month of the request. It also answers items the requester cited as contradicting an earlier reply, including a 2021 Axon press release and an April 2022 news article. (MuckRock, Sept. 19, 2022)
  3. Dec. 2024 The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported NHP was about to start using a federally funded van with a plate reader and thermal camera to pick out trucks for inspection, after a demonstration at an inspection site off Interstate 15. The system draws on federal databases such as truck safety scores. Each van cost more than $700,000 with its technology, paid by a federal grant awarded in 2022. A Drivewyze founder told the paper the company designed the technology. (GovTech, Dec. 17, 2024; Las Vegas Review-Journal, Dec. 2024)
Conflicts and open questions
  • Status is unconfirmed because the latest evidence of plate-reader use is December 2024, before the 12-month window. Nothing opened shows whether the vans are still in use.
  • The 2022 denial predates the vans and concerned general plate-reader use; the two statements do not necessarily conflict, but no source reconciles them.
  • The van reads truck plates as part of commercial vehicle screening. Nothing opened says whether it also reads passenger vehicles or how long data is kept; the Review-Journal article does not address retention.
  • The Review-Journal page shows no date in the text we read. December 2024 comes from the licensed GovTech reprint dated Dec. 17, 2024.

Reported by news outlets; agency records not yet obtained.