May 23, 2026

Mass Opposition Leads Chandler Police to Remove Flock Camera Pointed at Elementary School; 5 Cameras Removed; City Council Tables Vote Until July, Leaves Cameras on in Meantime

Chandler, Arizona – Community members showed up en masse on Thursday night at the Chandler City Hall, packing the room to urge the city council to vote no on renewing the city’s contract with Flock, and the company’s ALPR cameras. A key concern among the community was a camera pointed directly at Galveston Elementary School.

Chandler Police Chief speaking with constituents holding signs reading “Flock Out” and “Get The Flock Out Of Chandler” behind. Image taken from live stream of City Council meeting.

When asked by Mayor Kevin Hartke near the beginning of the meeting, “So there is no cameras at Galveston School or anywhere off of Hamilton, the interior there, related to the items that we’re talking about tonight?”, the representative from Chandler Police responded, “No, sir.”

The recording of the meeting can be found here.

Throughout the public comment period, multiple people mentioned they had visited it in-person days prior, and the camera, including the direction it was pointed in, can be seen on Google Maps street view. There are two other cameras on Hamilton St, and two others on Galveston St that would be considered in the “interior”, all pointed into the neighborhood rather than at the major roads, contrary to previous claims by the representative from Chandler Police.

The Flock camera at the intersection of Hamilton St and Galveston St pointed down the road at Galveston Elementary School. Image courtesy of East Valley Unite.

After the public comment period, when pressed again about the camera pointed at the school, the Chandler Police Chief admitted, “that is a Flock camera on Galveston.” He then went on to say, “Since this meeting started, we sent people out there and we’ve removed that camera from that area.”

“This really illustrates the impact of massive organized opposition,” said Nathan Taylortaft, co-director of East Valley Unite. “The public pressure just at the city council meeting causing Chandler Police to have the urgency to remove the camera during the meeting really shows the power of the people.”

After the meeting, broken fragments of the destroyed Galveston Elementary Flock camera were found scattered on the ground, and in the street, leading to questions about the method of removal.

Broken fragments of what was previously the Flock camera pointed at Galveston Elementary School.

4 additional Flock cameras were removed from the Galveston neighborhood Friday morning. These 4, and the one at Galveston Elementary, were part of a heavily scrutinized 9 within approximately 1 square mile, which also is the only area of Chandler where over 60% of the population is Hispanic. These were criticized heavily by the public during the meeting for racial targeting.

“Five cameras being removed almost immediately, just from the public pressure Thursday night, is really encouraging, and will be a huge factor of motivation for the community to continue this fight,” Taylortaft explained.

As for the rest of the cameras and the contract itself, the Council voted to table the discussion until the July 16 meeting, keeping the cameras on, to the frustration of the vast majority of the community, and Councilmember OD Harris.

“We packed the room on Thursday night with less than a week’s notice,” Taylortaft said, “now we have almost two months until the next meeting. The vast opposition to Flock in our community will only grow, and we will only mobilize more people leading up to that point.”

East Valley Unite is committed to nonviolent action in all of its activities.