August 2, 2026

Chandler Residents Expected To Pack City Council Chambers In Opposition To Flock Contract

Chandler, Arizona – After delaying the decision twice, the Chandler city council is expected to vote on renewal of the city’s contract with Flock during the meeting on August 13. This follows an intense meeting in May, where East Valley Unite and other local advocacy groups filled the room and held the council in public comment for a 4 hour meeting. 

“That one meeting built enough public pressure for the police to remove the Flock camera pointed at Galveston Elementary School”, said Nathan Taylortaft, co-director of East Valley Unite, “and while the council didn’t cancel the contract, they also didn’t renew it, which shows progress, and that this pressure is working.”

Taylortaft says they’ve built a lot of momentum since May, with over 100 people sending emails to the council through East Valley Unite alone, and anticipates the meeting on August 13 will see a larger crowd come to oppose Flock and hit home the message of unified opposition. Flock is largely seen as a bipartisan issue, with voters across political ideologies opposing automated license plate reader (ALPR) technologies, often on the basis of mass surveillance. Over 100,000 ALPRs are reported on the crowdsourced DeFlock.org map, and Flock scans 20 billion license plates monthly. At the same time, about 1 in 10 license plates is misidentified, which has led to many wrongful arrests across the country.

East Valley Unite has been mapping Flock cameras in Chandler and comparing that with census data to illustrate things such as racial targeting, and the scale and reach of Flock. “To build this map, our members will check on cameras consistently, and map new ones. We have also put out public calls for people to report cameras they see in their day-to-day lives”, Taylortaft said. “One way we see the bipartisan consensus on this issue is through the variety of people who report cameras to us. It is truly amazing to see such a unified front in this fight.”

Another big issue, especially in Arizona, is data sharing with federal agencies. While Chandler PD has claimed that the city doesn’t share data with ICE, an investigation has revealed that Chandler shares data with Mesa PD, which has a 287(g) cooperative agreement with ICE, and that Mesa has already searched Chandler data in response to requests from DHS, ICE’s parent agency.

Many councilmembers were endorsed by Chandler PD, and have said that they trust the agency, but Taylortaft says the real question is whether they trust other agencies across the country who have accessed Chandler data about 88 times more than Chandler PD itself.

“Flock and other ALPR technologies aren’t about safety”, says Taylortaft, “they’re about mass surveillance and profit margins. Chandler needs to cancel its contract with Flock, and pass an ordinance blocking the city from using any ALPRs in the future.”