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Yuma County already has license plate cameras. Arizona has no law on how they're used.

San Luis told its council how many Flock cameras it runs, what they cost and who can see the data. Yuma PD and the Sheriff's Office, which reportedly use a different system, haven't said nearly as much. Prop 319 didn't change any of it.

Dan Bustard

Founder & Publisher

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A solar-powered license plate reader trailer on dirt beside a highway, with an orange construction barrel in the background.
A license plate reader setup beside U.S. 95 in Fortuna Foothills, photographed in 2024. Who operates it isn't stated. Credit: Photo: Dugan Meyer / Wikimedia Commons, [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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In early August, San Luis police posted a video of somebody doing donuts in the street and asked the public to help identify the driver.

By Wednesday, Aug. 5, the City Council had called a special meeting about the cameras that caught it.

That's how a lot of San Luis residents learned their police department had been running Flock license plate readers since 2021. Police Chief Nigel Reynoso acknowledged the department hadn't told the community before it installed them, according to AZFamily.

Credit where it's due: once asked, San Luis put a lot on the table.

What San Luis disclosed

Its police department gave the Council a presentation. Here's what's in it:

  • What it runs: 7 Flock license plate reader locations and 17 Flock video camera locations. The first went up in September 2021. Five more cameras were added in July 2023.
  • What it cost: $143,200.29 from the general fund since 2021, plus $265,000 in state grant money through the Department of Emergency and Military Affairs. About $53,000 of the grant was spent in July 2025. The rest, about $212,000, is set aside for future annual fees.
  • How long it keeps data: 30 days, unless an officer pulls it into a case. Then it follows the state's records retention rules.
  • Who can see it: Flock data can be shared nationwide with 918 participating agencies, according to the presentation. Somerton and Wellton also run Flock, and the three share access with each other.
  • The rules: Officers have to enter a case number and a reason for every search. Searches are audited every quarter. Misuse can mean firing and loss of an officer's state certification.
  • What it doesn't do: The system doesn't automatically flag suspicious searches, like late-night lookups. The department said so itself.

It also listed cases the cameras helped crack: a kidnapped 11-year-old from Las Vegas recovered, a triple homicide suspect arrested and a missing man with dementia found in El Paso.

Some residents told AZFamily the cameras were an invasion of privacy. Others said they feel safer. Both are reasonable things to feel.

What Yuma hasn't said

The same San Luis presentation includes one line about the county's two biggest law enforcement agencies. It says the Yuma County Sheriff's Office and the Yuma Police Department use "similar LPR systems, known as Motorola Solutions." That's the company that used to be Vigilant Solutions.

That's most of what's public.

KYMA reported in April 2024 that YPD has license plate readers, paid for with grants, and that they've helped solve stolen vehicle cases, homicides, burglaries and robberies. YPD Sgt. Lori Franklin said so at the time.

Here's what we couldn't find:

  • How many readers YPD and the Sheriff's Office have, and where
  • What they cost and who paid
  • How long they keep the data
  • Which agencies can search it, and whether that includes federal agencies
  • Whether searches require a case number, and who audits them

Notice what's missing. Not the cameras. The rules.

Why the rules are up to each agency

Arizona has no law on license plate readers. None on how long data can be kept, who can search it, whether a warrant is needed or who checks up on it.

There was a try this year. Senate Bill 1111, from Sen. Kevin Payne, would have set statewide limits. It cleared a committee 7-2-1, then stalled on the Senate floor in March and never got a final vote, according to AZFamily and KJZZ. Critics on both sides had problems with it. Some thought it was too loose. Some thought it was worse than nothing.

So each police department writes its own rules. And each city council decides how hard to look.

Some have looked hard. Flagstaff ended its Flock contract and shut off 32 cameras. Surprise canceled after an officer was put on leave over possible misuse. Cottonwood and Payson stopped using plate readers this fall. Tempe stopped sharing its Flock data. Cochise County officials came out against Flock after Sierra Vista installed it.

Prop 319, which voters just approved, doesn't change any of this. It's about speed and red-light ticket cameras. Here's that story.

Want to check your own plate?

A nonprofit site called HaveIBeenFlocked.com lets you enter a plate number and see whether agencies have searched it in Flock's system, according to CBS News and KOLD. It shows searches, not every time a camera saw you.

One catch for Yuma: it only covers Flock. If YPD and the Sheriff's Office use Motorola, their searches won't show up there.

The scorecard

Verified - San Luis has run Flock plate readers since 2021 and disclosed counts, costs, retention, audit rules and sharing to its Council on Aug. 5, 2026. - Somerton and Wellton also use Flock, and the three agencies share access. - YPD has license plate readers, per its own spokesperson in 2024. - Arizona has no license plate reader statute. SB 1111 died in the Senate.

Not verified - That YPD and the Sheriff's Office use Motorola. That comes from one slide in another agency's presentation. - How many readers YPD and YCSO run, what they cost, and who can see the data. - Whether any Yuma County agency shares plate data with federal agencies.

My opinion

San Luis set a fair floor when it put its costs and rules in front of its Council. It took a donut video to get there, but it got there. The two biggest agencies in the county should be able to clear the same floor without one.

Questions that deserve public answers

For the Yuma Police Department and the Yuma County Sheriff's Office:

1. How many license plate readers do you operate, fixed and in vehicles? 2. What vendor, what contract, what cost and what funding source? 3. How long is plate data kept? 4. Who can search it? Does any federal agency have access? 5. Do searches require a case number, and who audits them?

These are public records questions. Anybody in Arizona can ask them. If YPD or the Sheriff's Office wants to answer them here, I'll print it.

Where this comes from

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