Chandler police end Flock camera use amid probe into potential misuse

CHANDLER, Ariz. - Another Arizona city is parting ways with Flock camera technology.

What we know:

The Chandler Police Department officials said they have restricted use to all 40 of these cameras. It comes one day after an internal investigation was launched into potential misuse of the technology.

This announcement comes days before the Chandler City Council was set to vote on the city's contract with Flock.

What they're saying:

Police Chief Bryan Chapman could not talk specifics about this investigation, since it is ongoing, but he did say that no one’s privacy has been compromised as part of the potential misuse.

"All of the employees at the Chandler Police Department have had their access to the Flock system restricted effective immediately," Chapman said.

Dig deeper:

Chandler is the latest city in Arizona to end its use of 40 Flock cameras, which were in use until this week across the city. Chapman also shared that an internal investigation is underway into an anomaly caught by a routine audit process.

"I can just say that we have identified a potential misuse of the system by somebody in our organization," Chapman said.

Chapman touted the technology during his press conference, saying it has been an important part of police work since its installation in March 2024.

"Certainly this slows down our investigative capacities but importantly, ALPR is one piece of a technology layer that we use to investigate and handle calls for service every day," Chapman said.

Local perspective:

That anomaly is not surprising news to community members who have spoken up against the use of automated license plate readers.

"Flock cameras and automated license plate readers have been used wrongly in a number of ways and that’s what we’ve been warning about because we saw this coming and we didn’t want this to happen in Chandler," said Nathan Taylortaft, a representative for East Valley Unite.

Michael Oei, a Chandler resident, added, "This isn’t just an issue with Flock, it’s not just an issue with one company, this is an issue with the technology that really profits from selling peoples’ data."

What's next:

The cameras themselves will not be immediately taken down, as they are property of Flock itself.

While the contract with Flock is no longer on the city council agenda for later this week, both residents interviewed say they support a city ordinance blocking the city from using any of these license plate readers in the future, and plan to attend future meetings to advocate for that.

The other side:

Officials with Flock have released a statement in response to Chandler's decision. It reads:

"We are disappointed by the City of Chandler’s announcement about ending their use of Flock technology due to potential misuse. However, this situation underscores exactly why we created our robust auditing tools—tools that enabled Chandler to identify user abuse of the system, including the Audit Assistance feature that automatically flags patterns that may indicate misuse, including in this case.

As Chief Chapman stated, Chandler PD and the City are dedicated to public trust, transparency and accountability – and Flock has built the only License Plate Reader system with tools like Audit Assistance that help police identify these internal issues. It’s why the public is becoming more aware of the rare cases of misuse; not because it never happened previously, but because we have now provided the tools that bring it to light.

We are proud of the results of our partnership over the past three years in Chandler, and are confident that once the City has undertaken additional policy measures, we will be the best LPR vendor for their needs."

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