CHANDLER, AZ — License plate reader cameras are staying up in Chandler, for now. After council members and residents clashed Thursday night, the city's contract renewal with Flock Safety was tabled.
But one camera came down in the middle of the meeting. That pole where the camera stood until late Thursday night, near Hamilton and Galveston streets, is still there, but the camera is gone.
The community says it was pointed directly at an elementary school.
At the start of Thursday's meeting, Chandler Police Chief Bryan Chapman was asked about that camera.
"I am not aware of any at the Galveston School specifically," Chapman said.
Then the public spoke.
"You say this won't be used for racial targeting or be put in residential areas, yet have placed cameras on every corner of predominantly brown neighborhoods, even having one pointed straight at Galveston Elementary School," one resident said.
"What about the one pointed directly at Galveston Elementary School or what about the other 8 cameras in the only area of Chandler where over 60% of the population is Hispanic," another resident said.
Chapman returned to the podium.
"During all of the comment section, we did work through our logistics point. That is a Flock camera on Galveston," Chapman said.
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Chapman said the camera was one of 14 approved under a pilot program placed to address crime in the Galveston neighborhood. He said it had been on a list to be removed and repurposed for about a month. It came down during the meeting.
"That's simply from the public pressure, and we can greatly increase that public pressure as much as we need to, in order to get Flock out of Chandler,” said Nathan Taylortaft, Co-Founder and Co-Director of East Valley Unite.
“Yes, they took out one camera, but that doesn't mean this is the end, we have to continue to fight for this and continue to get Flock out of Chandler,” said Daisy Vega Monarrez, a community member.
The city said the following in an email “repurposing the technology to higher traffic locations has been pending the resolution of permitting processes to enable that relocation.”
I asked the city why, if relocation was already planned, it happened in the middle of a public meeting about that very camera. The city had not responded at the time this story aired on Friday.
Council member OD Harris pushed to have all 40 cameras turned off until a final decision is made in July. That did not happen Thursday night. The council will meet to discuss the future of flock cameras further in an executive session. The date of that meeting has not been set.
