August 12, 2026
After Win Against Flock, Chandler Residents To Pack August 13 Council Meeting For End Of All ALPRs
Chandler, Arizona – On Friday, Chandler decided to not renew its contract with Flock Safety, after months of public opposition, and a “possible misuse” of the system. “They cancelled the contract because this was a tipping point,” said Nathan Taylortaft, co-director of East Valley Unite. “We wouldn’t be here without months of public pressure, a flood of emails, a packed council meeting, the threat of another, and hundreds of voices saying NO to mass surveillance.” Many police departments have decided to continue to use Flock after a misuse, including Apache Junction just across the East Valley, and Taylortaft says community advocacy in Chandler is the difference, and shows the power of public pressure.
East Valley Unite has been leading the opposition to Flock in Chandler since May, and now that the contract has ended, there’s a big push to get physical coverings over the cameras. There are documented cases where Flock doesn’t comply with cities after a contract is cancelled, which is fueling concerns around Flock, and possibly other police departments, still having access to data. In Evanston, IL, Flock didn’t take down all the cameras after the city decided to terminate its contract, and then reinstalled cameras that were previously taken down, without city permission. This caused the city of Evanston to send Flock a cease-and-desist order. “It’s in Flock’s best interest to keep collecting as much data as possible,” Taylortaft said, “because the data in and of itself is of value to the company and other police departments. The whole business model around automated license plate reader (ALPR) companies relies on more and more data. They will likely continue to stall, and not take the cameras down until the last possible moment.” This is why he expressed the need for Chandler to physically cover the cameras so they can’t continue to track people in the meantime.
Now, local residents want to make sure that another ALPR company, such as Axon, can’t take Flock’s place. “We don’t want the police to just continue this mass surveillance system under the name of another company,” said Taylortaft, “which is why we’re pushing for an ordinance to prohibit the city from using ALPRs in any way.” He says that could include stopping the city from contracting with a company for the purpose of using ALPRs, both fixed, like traditional Flock Falcon cameras, and mobile, such as those mounted to police vehicles, in addition to prohibiting accessing ALPR data from ALPRs on private property, such as those located at a Home Depot or Lowe’s location, or those used by HOA’s.
Now that Flock is out, at least for now, the aim is to continue the massive momentum that has been built to outright ban all ALPR mass surveillance technology. If successful, Chandler would be the largest, and the second city nationwide to do so, only after Ypsilanti, Michigan. East Valley Unite aims to pack the city council chambers for the meeting on August 13 to demand that an ordinance with these effects be passed to protect the Fourth Amendment rights of citizens.
“Guardrails are just not enough,” said Taylortaft, “and distract from the core issue with ALPRs, their unconstitutional nature, regardless of the company operating them.”