SCOTTSDALE, AZ — Scottsdale residents who are demanding answers about Flock license plate reader cameras will finally get a public discussion after months of pressure on the city council.
The Scottsdale City Council agreed Tuesday to place Flock cameras on the agenda for a public meeting scheduled for Oct. 6.
Long-time resident Patti Badenoch has been among those pressing the council for action.
"It's real simple. Bottom line I believe there should be a ban on public organizations such as Flock," Badenoch said.
Eric Fowler, chairman of the Maricopa County Libertarian Party, first asked the council for a discussion last year. He addressed the council again Tuesday, arguing the program bypassed proper oversight.
"The 85 cameras are still up. And there's still no vote. This program went around you and went around the voters," Fowler said.
Fowler also suggested the city missed an opportunity to act sooner.
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"You could have been the early movers and actually done something about this while everyone else learned their lesson," Fowler said.
Since Fowler's initial request, a growing number of Valley cities have moved on — Chandler and Tempe both canceled their Flock contracts over privacy concerns.
Scottsdale police continue to defend the cameras. A recent police memo calls them a crucial public safety tool and outlines new privacy safeguards the department plans to put in place, including an independent audit.
Lottie Kimball, who represents the Scottsdale Fraternal Order of Police, argued the technology delivers real results.
"It helps locate violent offenders, find missing and endangered people, recover stolen vehicles, connect crimes and give officers critical information when minutes matter," Kimball told the council.
Police credit the cameras with more than 200 felony arrests.
Scottsdale council members say they are not questioning the public safety benefits, but members agree a public conversation is overdue.
"It's a conversation we want to share with the public. We want to have everyone understand what's going on," Mayor Lisa Borowsky said.
In an August memo, Scottsdale police and city leaders promised new safeguards for the cameras.
These include:
- Plans for an independent city audit of the cameras.
- An ordinance that would come to the council for a vote on criminal penalties for intentional misuse of the cameras.
- A public transparency website, explaining how the cameras work.
City leaders also plan to evaluate alternative vendors besides Flock "to determine whether other solutions can provide the same or better public safety capability while giving Scottsdale greater control over its information."
The city will also review how long it keeps camera data. Police currently store that information for about six months, and city leaders want to explore whether they can reduce that retention period without hurting police investigations.
