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COUNCIL RETREAT
Flock camera use in Cave Creek questioned by council
Courtesy Flock Safety
There are four Flock camera, like this one, located around Cave Creek. (Courtesy of Flock Safety)
Cave Creek Town Council members questioned Town Marshall Adam Stein during the council retreat Thursday about the use of the Flock camera system and why they didn’t seem to know the system has been in the town’s budget since 2023.
In addition to some neighborhoods that have contracted privately with Flock to install cameras, the town has four cameras in use, which is costing Cave Creek $12,000 annually for their use. The cameras are at:
• Cave Creek Road south of Olesson Road near the Walmart
• Stagecoach Village on Cave Creek Road and North Scope Trail Road
• 56th Street and Carefree Highway
• 32nd Street and Carefree Highway
“The box system is reading license plates, and if that license plate is associated with crime,” Stein said during his presentation. “It sends all the particulars to of my phone and says, ‘Hey, you know, you have a stolen vehicle in K3.’ ‘You have, a missing person in Cave Creek associated with this license plate.’ ‘You have a warrant associated with that license plate,’”
“It doesn’t tell us who’s riding in the vehicle,” Stein said.
According to Stein, of the approximately 92 jurisdictions within the state, 65 use the Flock camera system.
And there are a lot of misconceptions according to Stein.
“One of the questions that I’ve received is, well, you know, you have that data forever,” Stein said. “That’s actually not true. We maintain the data for 30 days. If we don’t realize a crime has occurred within 30 days, the data is gone. It’s not even retrievable at that 30 days that we may change the data. It’s only accessible to us for 30 days, and it just disappears.”
Another misconception Stein said is Flock sells data the cameras records.
“Flock does not sell any of their data,” Stein said. “Doesn’t share their data with third parties. We own that data, And also Flock has never been hacked. Some people say, ‘Oh, it gets hacked, and God knows who has it.’ They’ve never been hacked.”
Stein said the Flock system has helped Cave Creek officials during the past year.
“We had a shooting in Cave Creek, the Flock helped us identify the vehicle of license plate, and we had a successful arrest on that,” Stein said. “I’ve personally pulled over a vehicle with that by our Flock system recovered a stolen car. It was stolen out of Phoenix. Recovery of that vehicle was in less than 24 hours because the Flock camera.”
Councilmember Tom Augherton questioned how the council didn’t know the cameras were in use in Cave Creek, let alone it being a budgeted item.
“How did we never know?” Augherton said. “When did we ever decide to do this as a council, and how did it become? I don’t remember when you did testify on the question here. It could probably have been a few years ago, but nobody took a note of it,”
“With all due respect council member (Augherton), it is brought up with the budget issue every year,” Stein said. “It’s on the budget. It’s in black and white that we have a Flock system. It’s been here since 2023. I have not heard any outreach.”
“We never got a request from the Sheriff’s Office for this equipment that I’m aware of,” Augherton continued.
“Actually we did sir,” Stein continued.
“Well, then, that should have been part of the public discussion, public hearing,” Augherton continued.
Town Manager Grady Miller said they will take a look at the Flock deal and come back with guidance.
“We’ll take a look at the contract,” Miller said. “There was a question about which jurisdictions have this, so we’ll go ahead and do that research and come back to you. And then the council can then give a future direction.”
Meet Jeff Jeff Wendt started at Independent Newsmedia in January 2023, after 25 years working for Gannett and The Arizona Republic. Started as a high school sports scoretaker, worked up to reporting high school sports and then became an associate high school sports editor in 2002. Also worked in the Design Studio as a copy editor.
Community: Jeff serves on the Board of Elders at his local church.
Education: Arizona State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Mass Communication
Random fact: Attended Game 2 of the 2001 World Series.
Hobbies: Playing video games (yes still the kid in me), watching reality TV, playing poker.
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