Cave Creek terminates Flock camera contract, joining growing list of Arizona agencies

The town of Cave Creek has ended its agreement with Flock Safety for automated license plate reader technology, citing privacy concerns, recent cases of misuse elsewhere in the state and the theft of one of the system’s cameras.

The termination, announced Wednesday, is effective immediately.

Public works crews have removed all remaining Flock cameras for safekeeping after one was stolen from the intersection of 32nd Street and Carefree Highway.

Because data can be accessed by outside agencies, creating safeguards was impossible, said Cave Creek officials.

The Town Manager and Town Attorney will formally address the termination at the Sept. 1 council meeting.

A growing number of Arizona communities are canceling Flock contracts

Cave Creek is at least the ninth city or town in Arizona to drop or restrict its use of Flock cameras in the past year.

Several of those decisions followed internal audits that flagged potential misuse by law enforcement personnel, including an Apache Junction officer who resigned after using the system to locate his wife during a dispute.

Flock Safety partners with 5,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide. Its AI-powered cameras photograph vehicles and convert the images into searchable data, including vehicle details and location stored in a cloud-based system.

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