Police Surveillance Technology

The 2021 Flock deployment

Public reporting from 2021 documented a Litchfield Park project involving 32 Flock Safety automated license plate readers. The cameras were described as being installed at entrances into the community.

The City’s own 2021 public-safety announcement provides an important distinction. During the transition from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office to the Avondale Police Department, the City stated that the solar-powered license plate reader cameras being installed throughout Litchfield Park would remain independent of the police service provider.

The historical record therefore does not support describing the cameras simply as an Avondale Police Department installation.

The reported deployment was approved by the City Council in 2020 and installed during 2021.

Police service and the camera system

Litchfield Park does not have its own police department. The City currently contracts with the City of Avondale for policing services.

The City’s 2021 public-safety announcement said the license plate reader cameras would remain independent of the police service provider when police services transitioned from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office to Avondale.

Later Litchfield Park law-enforcement reports are provided by the Avondale Police Department and document Flock activity occurring within Litchfield Park.

This distinction matters because the public record establishes both the City’s ownership/installation role and later use of the system by the City’s contracted police provider, but the records reviewed do not establish the complete current ownership, administration, or access configuration.

Budget history

Documented Flock activity

Examples of documented Flock use

The official reports contain specific examples of how officers responded to Flock alerts.

In December 2022, officers received multiple alerts involving a vehicle associated with a stolen license plate. In another December incident, a Flock alert led officers to a vehicle associated with a stolen vehicle investigation.

In January 2022, officers located a vehicle after a stolen-license-plate alert. The investigation determined that the registered owner had previously reported the plate stolen and later received a replacement plate with the same number without the stolen status being removed. The plate was subsequently removed from the stolen database.

The reports therefore show both successful investigative leads and situations in which officers had to verify the information generated by the system.

Documented alert errors and false matches

The public reports reviewed contain examples where an alert did not accurately identify the vehicle or plate status.

In one documented incident, officers determined that Flock had misread a plate by one letter. The vehicle was not stolen.

Other reports describe plates that remained listed as stolen even though the vehicle or replacement plate was legally associated with the owner.

These examples do not establish an overall error rate. They demonstrate that individual Flock alerts can require verification by officers.

Flock access

During a May 2023 Litchfield Park City Council meeting, an Avondale Police sergeant was asked about public access to the Flock cameras.

The sergeant stated that only certain Avondale officers had access and described the reports generated when the system was accessed.

This is a historical statement about the access configuration discussed with Council in 2023. The public records reviewed do not establish whether the same access configuration remains in effect today.

Other surveillance technology

The public record contains references to surveillance technology beyond Flock ALPR.

Security cameras

Litchfield Park budget documents separately identify security-camera projects, including cameras associated with city facilities, underpasses, parks, recreation facilities, and outdoor courts.

These should not be counted as Flock ALPR cameras unless a source specifically establishes that capability.

The manufacturer or model of these general security-camera systems has not been established in the public sources reviewed.

Body-worn cameras

The City’s policing services are provided by Avondale. Public records reviewed during this research identify body-worn-camera technology in Avondale Police materials, including Axon equipment.

That does not establish that Litchfield Park owns an Axon ALPR system. Body-worn cameras and ALPR systems are treated as separate technologies here.

Drones and other systems

References to drones, trail cameras, and other video systems were found in the broader research material. The sources reviewed do not establish that these systems constitute Litchfield Park ALPR deployments.

They should therefore remain separate from the ALPR camera count.

Other ALPR manufacturers

The research included searches for Flock Safety, Motorola/Vigilant, Axon, Genetec/AutoVu, Leonardo/ELSAG, Rekor, Neology, PlateSmart, OpenALPR, Avigilon, Axis, Verkada, and other ALPR terminology.

Flock Safety is the only ALPR manufacturer specifically established by the public Litchfield Park sources reviewed.

A Motorola/Vigilant camera appears in an independent dataset covering a broader geographic area around Litchfield Park, but that dataset does not establish that the camera is located within Litchfield Park or operated by the City.

No reliable public source reviewed established another ALPR manufacturer as a Litchfield Park deployment.

This should not be interpreted as proof that no other system exists.

Current camera count

The original public reporting established 32 cameras in 2021.

Independent current mapping identifies approximately 29 Flock locations within the Litchfield Park municipal boundary.

The mapped figure is not an official City inventory and should not be used to claim that Litchfield Park currently has 29 cameras, or that three of the original 32 cameras have been removed.

The current official camera count remains not established by the public records reviewed.

Population context

Reported misuse and oversight

The research specifically looked for public reports of Litchfield Park or Avondale personnel improperly using ALPR systems.

No credible public report reviewed establishes that an Litchfield Park or Avondale officer improperly used the Litchfield Park Flock system.

There are, however, documented Arizona cases involving alleged or confirmed misuse of Flock systems by officers in other jurisdictions.

These cases are included only as oversight context and are not presented as Litchfield Park incidents.

The research also found:

• An Arizona officer in Apache Junction was found to have used Flock to locate a family member for personal reasons.
• A Chandler officer admitted using Flock to locate a family member for personal reasons.
• Goodyear investigated possible Flock misuse by an officer; the public reporting reviewed did not establish the final underlying conduct.
• Surprise investigated an apparent misuse anomaly that was ultimately attributed to a technical/browser issue rather than officer misconduct.
• Public reporting in 2026 examined Avondale Flock audit records but did not identify a publicly reported Avondale misuse incident in the records reviewed.

These examples demonstrate why audit records and access controls are important, but they do not establish misconduct in Litchfield Park.

What the public record establishes

The public record reviewed establishes that:

• Litchfield Park approved a Flock ALPR project.
• 32 Flock Safety ALPR cameras were reported as part of the 2021 deployment.
• The City reported an initial annual cost of $80,000.
• City budget documents identify recurring police-camera expenses as license plate reader cameras.
• Litchfield Park’s official law-enforcement reports document Flock alerts over multiple years.
• The system has been used for alerts involving stolen vehicles, stolen plates, warrants, wanted persons, and missing persons.
• Official reports contain examples where officers verified and corrected information generated by the system.
• In 2023, Avondale Police told the City Council that access was limited to certain officers.
• Flock is the only specifically identified ALPR manufacturer established by the Litchfield Park public sources reviewed.

What remains unclear

The public sources reviewed do not establish:

• The current official camera count.
• Whether all 32 original cameras remain operational.
• The current annual Flock cost.
• The current contract expiration or renewal status.
• The current retention configuration.
• The complete list of agencies or personnel with access.
• The current Flock network/data-sharing configuration.
• The complete current camera-location inventory.
• Whether Litchfield Park currently operates any ALPR system from another manufacturer.
• Whether any historical ALPR audit identified misconduct that has not been publicly reported.
• Whether Litchfield Park receives or maintains complete Flock access/search audit records.

Sources

The source records associated with this topic include official Litchfield Park law-enforcement reports, Litchfield Park budget documents, City Council minutes, the City’s 2021 public-safety announcement, the City’s police-service information, U.S. Census Bureau population data, and secondary reporting used to corroborate the original Flock deployment.

This page distinguishes between documented facts, derived figures, independent mapping, secondary reporting, and questions that remain unresolved.