15 license plate cameras purchased for Apache Junction police

If there was an incident that happened in the intersection on Delaware and Ironwood where someone pulled a gun out, and they gave us a description on a vehicle, at that point designated police employees, police officers or detectives could then look through the system to see if there was a vehicle that matched the description that went through that area, which would give us a license plate which would give us a way to start looking for whoever may have been driving that vehicle,””

Apache Junction Police Department Chief Michael Pooley

By Richard Dyer
Mail | Twitter: @RHDyer

License plates of vehicles passing through Apache Junction will be read with a new public safety camera program recently approved by the City Council.

The council voted 4-1 on May 3 to approve an $80,350 two-year agreement with Flock LLC for the implementation of the camera program, with year one funded by an Arizona State Vehicle Theft Task Force grant of $15,000 and $27,800 out of the city’s general fund. Councilmember Robert Schroeder dissented.

If one of the solar-powered cameras snaps a photo of a vehicle that has been reported stolen, law enforcement officials will be alerted, Police Chief Michael Pooley said.

“What will happen is there is a National Crime Information Center — it’s called NCIC. It’s a crime database run and held by the FBI. Every law enforcement agency has the ability to put criminal information into this database that goes throughout the entire country whether it’s a stolen vehicle, a vehicle with an Amber Alert, a Silver Alert, a Blue Alert; if it’s involved in a specific crime, that is put into the database,” he told councilors May 3. “If that vehicle happens to be in the area of one of these cameras, it will drive by, it will take a picture of the rear of the vehicle and it will send an immediate alert to police officers who are working that day. This information is kept for 30 days; after that it’s purged. These cameras are not used for traffic enforcement.”

The rear of the vehicle — including the make, model and color and any other identifying marks — will be in the photo, Chief Pooley said.

“So basically it’s not a traffic-control camera at all; it’s just more eyes on the road to protect our community,” Councilmember Tess Nesser said.

Councilmember Robert Schroeder said the police department could store information on its own beyond the 30 days.

“So you say the 30-day purge on this, all of the stored information; but you at the police department, you have the authority to store anything you want. You could go into that before it gets purged and — I’m assuming investigation purposes — you could cherry pick anything you want out of those last 30 days and hold them in storage and not necessarily get rid of them,” he said.

“That is accurate,” Pooley said.

No photos of people

Fifteen cameras would be placed around city entrances and exits as well as within higher-crime areas, Pooley and AJPD Cmdr. Joseph Penze wrote in a memo to the council.

“The camera’s core function is to capture license plate numbers and other vehicle features by taking photos of the rear of a vehicle only. The cameras do not capture photos of people or faces within the vehicle,” it states. “The footage collected allows officers with a documented reason or case number to search for a vehicle by type, make, model, license plate number, missing and covered license plates and other unique features such as bumper stickers, dents or roof racks. Each search executed creates a permanent audit trail.”

Public safety agencies can share camera data to assist with real-time alerts for stolen vehicles to dispatch, patrol and detectives. Real time alerts are sent to officers and dispatch via computer or phone, according to the memo.

“Flock offers a software and hardware solution for automatic license plate detection through Flock’s technology platform, and upon detection the Flock Services are capable of capturing audio, image and recordings data of suspected vehicles and can provide notifications to agency upon the instructions of nonagency end user,” according to a Flock Group Inc. services agreement.

The snapshots taken by the cameras are not monitored 24/7 and will only be seen by police officials, Pooley told the council.

“It is not something that anybody has access to outside of the police department. Only police department employees — and specific employees — are allowed to access this information from criminal investigations,” he said.

“If there was an incident that happened in the intersection on Delaware and Ironwood where someone pulled a gun out, and they gave us a description on a vehicle, at that point designated police employees, police officers or detectives could then look through the system to see if there was a vehicle that matched the description that went through that area, which would give us a license plate which would give us a way to start looking for whoever may have been driving that vehicle,” Pooley said.

“In this day and age I feel like we have to give our law enforcement agency as many tools as we can to help protect our people and this is just one more tool to do that,” Vice Mayor Christa Rizzi said later.

Richard Dyer
Managing Editor | East Valley
@RHDyer

rdyer@iniusa.org

Meet Richard
Richard Dyer has worked at Independent Newsmedia Inc. USA since 1987, starting his career in Apache Junction as a copy editor and being promoted over the years to work as the editor of the Mesa Independent, news services editor for the East Valley office in Apache Junction, managing editor for the East Valley office, news services editor for the East Valley office and eventually also for the newspapers at INI’s then-Chandler office, managing editor again and as a news editor covering Apache Junction/Gold Canyon and Queen Creek. He helped start the Florence Independent while the news editor covering Apache Junction and Mesa news. In January 2023, he became associate managing editor for the East Valley newspapers and in August 2023 became managing editor for the East Valley newspapers of Chandler/Tempe, Gilbert, Queen Creek, Florence, Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon, while also reporting on Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon.  

Community: Since 2009, he has worked as a volunteer to design The Blue Guitar Magazine, Blue Guitar Jr. magazine and Unstrung magazine, which are projects of The Arizona Consortium for the Arts; and since 2014, has been overseeing the art submissions. 

Education: University of Arizona with a master of arts in journalism and a bachelor of science in agricultural communication. Also continuing education at Mesa Community College in welding in a metal art sculpture class.

Random fact: Saw his first tornado on May 31, 2010, which was classified as an EF-2, as part of a stormchasing tour group.

Hobbies: He is an artist of welded-steel sculptures, selling his artwork at juried and non-juried art shows.