1. United States
2. Ariz.
3. Letter

I’m writing to urge you to change your position on ALPR cameras (Flock, Axon, et al). An article was published recently on azcentral, “Statewide ban or local control? Hobbs and Biggs disagree on Flock” and I believe your position on the issue is WAY out of step with public opinion. The argument against the use of ALPRs is one of the most bipartisan agreements of modern times. City council meetings discussing Flock contracts are standing-room only affairs, packed with angry citizens protesting the use of these cameras in their communities. This technology is nearly universally hated and drives a massive wedge of distrust between the public and police departments. The article states that your opinion is ALPRs should be regulated on the local level and the state should merely provide guardrails. The vast majority of the public disagrees with the deployment of these devices in the first place. We were never given a choice to vote on their use, and if we were, we absolutely would NOT have chosen to put such privacy-infringing tech in our communities and on our roads. Please put Arizona citizens’ constitutionally-protected privacy rights ahead of hypothetical public safety promises. The police have solved crimes for decades without this technology, and the risk for abuse of this broad surveillance tech is far too great. I’m going to say it as clearly as possible: YOU WILL LOSE A LARGE NUMBER OF VOTES IF YOU DON’T DENOUNCE THE USE OF ALPRs. You may get more campaign cash from the bazillionaire donors and their dark money PACs with your current position, but you will absolutely pay for it at the ballot box this November.