Pinal County supervisors end Flock contract

The Pinal County Board of Supervisors has made one final move to end the use of Flock Group’s automated license plate reader cameras in unincorporated parts of the county.

The supervisors voted 4-1 Wednesday to issue a notice of non-renewal to Flock Group for an agreement on placement of cameras throughout county rights of way.

Supervisor Stephen Q. Miller voted against the measure.

“I think there’s some unintended consequences for all this action. I think it should be explored more, but we’ll just have to see how it goes,” he said.

On Aug. 5, Pinal County Sheriff Ross Teeple informed supervisors he would not be renewing the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office contract with Flock, citing Fourth Amendment concerns.

Teeple said his decision will only affect the cameras in unincorporated areas of the county where PCSO is responsible for law enforcement services.

That still left supervisors to act on the contract that allowed Flock to place its cameras on county infrastructure on rights of way.

In 2022, the county entered a trial period to place the cameras along its rights of way, with an extension passed in 2024. The current contract is set to end on Sept. 29.

“The contract between the sheriff’s office and Flock for the leasing of the camera equipment and the associated services with it is not part of this agreement. They are two separate things and the notices of termination of those (sheriff’s) contracts have already gone out,” Ian Daranyi of the Pinal County Attorney’s office told the supervisors.

The board’s action sets in motion a 180-day notice to Flock that the contract will not be renewed.

Daranyi advised the supervisors to quickly follow its notice of non-renewal with a schedule on when the cameras must be removed.

“The county in the current license agreement has the ability to set a schedule for Flock to remove those items from the rights of way,” Daranyi said. “Then, if that removal is not done in accordance with that schedule, the county can remove those items and then later bill Flock for that removal cost.”

Regardless of when the hardware is removed, the cameras will stop pulling information from vehicles on Sept. 29.

Along with PCSO and Pinal County, Chandler also is ending its contract with Flock amid what Chandler Police Chief Bryan Chapman said was suspected misuse or unauthorized use of the system “within our department.”

In September, the Queen Creek Town Council will be considering policy changes to enhance safeguards restricting access to Flock camera information, perhaps even making it a misdemeanor to misuse the technology.

Janet Perez can be reached at jperez@iniusa.org. Please send your comments about this article to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.