The Pinal County Sheriff's Office is ending its contract for Flock Safety cameras, the automated license plate readers posted throughout the San Tan Valley area, Sheriff Ross Teeple told the Pinal County Board of Supervisors on Aug. 5.

Teeple said he instructed his staff last month to cancel the contract, and that he did so because of what he called serious Fourth Amendment concerns about what the cameras are able to do. The Fourth Amendment protects people from unreasonable searches by the government.

"I have serious Fourth Amendment concerns with some of the technology that is contained in those cameras, whether or not we have access to it," Teeple said in a video posted to Facebook. "I swore an oath to the Constitution and will protect your individual liberties until the day I die."

What the Cameras Do

An automated license plate reader, or ALPR, is a camera that photographs license plates as vehicles drive past. Teeple said that part is not what worries him. He said the U.S. Supreme Court has held more than once that a driver has no expectation of privacy for a license plate traveling down a public road, and he pointed to a 2020 ruling he said was decided 8-1.

His concern is what newer cameras add on top of that. Teeple said the equipment now in place can stream live video, record video, and run facial recognition and artificial intelligence pattern recognition, which is software that can piece together where a person goes from day to day.

"We have a camera system that can do facial recognition technology, pattern recognition technology, and can start building a data set on what our citizens are doing on a day-to-day basis," Teeple said.

He compared that to a separate Supreme Court decision that found attaching a tracking device to a vehicle to follow a person's movements was too intrusive.

Teeple also raised data security. He said his information technology staff confirmed that some of the publicly reported data breaches involving the technology had in fact happened. He said that when he began asking the vendor's regional representative for answers about the cameras, the representative later told him he had been let go by the company.

"So I thought that was very telling," Teeple said.

What It Means for San Tan Valley

The Pinal County Sheriff's Office provides law enforcement across the whole San Tan Valley area — inside the Town of San Tan Valley as well as in the unincorporated portion governed directly by Pinal County. Flock cameras are posted throughout that area, so this is not only a question for residents outside town limits.

Teeple was specific that his decision reaches only the cameras the sheriff's office controls. Cities and towns that run their own camera programs can keep them.

"The cities, if they decide that they want to continue on with this technology, God bless them, they are free to do that," Teeple said.

The Town of San Tan Valley has not announced what it intends to do.

A Supervisor Raises Tracking Concerns

Supervisor Jeff Serdy, who asked for the item to be placed on the agenda, said he wanted the information in front of residents. He said there is national and local pushback against the cameras, including people taking them down in other parts of the country.

Serdy said newer camera models will be able to use facial recognition and identify which cellphones are inside a vehicle. He questioned who actually watches the systems, noting that the people with access are employees of private companies rather than sworn officers or elected officials, and pointed to a case elsewhere in which a police chief used camera data to track a former partner.

He also raised a liability question. If the cameras stay up, he asked, who would be responsible for replacing them, noting the poles are not the breakaway type required along many roadways. He said U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee plans to introduce a bill to ban the cameras nationwide, and he closed by quoting Benjamin Franklin on trading liberty for temporary safety.

Plate Cameras Are Not Going Away Entirely

Teeple said the sheriff's office still uses a different kind of camera that only takes a still photograph of the back of a license plate, with no video and no recognition software. He said his anti-smuggling unit uses those cameras now, and that he used similar equipment when he oversaw aviation and search and rescue before being elected sheriff.

Supervisor Rich Vitiello asked whether a system exists that only reads plates and could alert other agencies in a kidnapping or a homicide. Teeple said yes, that several vendors sell different levels of the technology, and that some offer cameras that take still photographs only.

Why the Data Is Kept for 30 Days

Serdy questioned why camera data is held for 30 days, saying that if officers are searching for a vehicle in a kidnapping, a few minutes should be enough.

Teeple said that length is not the sheriff's choice. He said state law sets how long law enforcement agencies must keep records, and changing the 30-day window would take a change in that law. As an example, he said every document a sworn officer creates has to be kept until five years after that officer's last day of employment.

No Vote Was Taken

The item was listed on the agenda as a presentation and discussion, not an action item, and the board did not vote on it. Ending the contract is the sheriff's decision to make, not the board's.

"This is not an action item. It's discussion," Chairman Jeffrey McClure said.

Shortly after Teeple began his presentation, McClure stopped him and asked the board to recess into an executive session, a closed-door portion of the meeting. Teeple restarted his presentation from the beginning when the meeting resumed.

What Happens Next

Serdy asked whether the board would need to vote separately to have the cameras removed. County legal staff said the board can take up any matter within its jurisdiction and pointed to an existing 2024 right-of-way license agreement, which could be placed on a future agenda.

Later in the meeting, when supervisors were asked for future agenda items, Serdy said the board would "play it by ear with the cameras."