8.
City Council Combined Work Session/Special Meeting - AMENDED
- Meeting Date:
- 10/28/2025
- From:
- Collin Seay, Deputy Police Chief - Patrol Operations
- Department:
- Police Department
Co-Submitter:
TITLE:
Community Discussion on Citizen Petition Regarding Automated License Plate Readers (ALPR) and Flock Safety
DESIRED OUTCOME:
Hear community input on ALPR technology and Flock Safety, and its usage by the Flagstaff Police Department to serve victims of crime in our community.
Executive Summary:
Staff from the Flagstaff Police Department presented to the Flagstaff City Council on September 2, 2025 an amendment to the state contract for a renewal of our Flock Safety Contract from 2024. The Flagstaff City Council also heard a citizen's petition to cancel the city's Flock Safety contract during the same meeting, and approximately thirty people made public comment on the topic at the dais. The Flagstaff City Council decided to hold a public discussion on October 28, 2025 to hear more community feedback regarding ALPR technology and Flock Safety. Attached to this staff summary, the Flagstaff Police Department has included the September 2 PowerPoint presentation, a new PowerPoint presentation on actions taken since the September meeting, and the Flagstaff Police Department ALPR Policy #317.
Information:
The Flagstaff Police Department remains committed to responsibly leveraging modern law enforcement technology to serve victims of crime and reduce victimization in our community. We are also very considerate and respectful of all law-abiding members of the community's right to privacy. Our mission is to protect and preserve life, property, and public order through elite service. We take a victim-centric approach to policing, and everything we do is to serve the members of this community and its victims of crime. Each year, we will have around 300 victims of Part 1 violent crime and nearly 1600 victims of Part 1 property crime, and these statistics do not include the victimization of misdemeanor crimes in our community. In 2024, we saw a 52% increase in Part 1 violent crime in the community, which is extremely impactful to our community members. After the implementation of our Crime Reduction Plan, we have seen a 10% reduction in Part 1 violent crime in 2025 so far, and appropriately leveraging technology is a tenant of our Crime Reduction Plan to the community.
We have heard many voices from the community on the issue of Flock Safety, and we have taken a proactive and transparent approach to how we utilize this technology. We have created a flock transparency portal, held multiple community information meetings on ALPR technology at the police department, done interviews with multiple media outlets including the Arizona Daily Sun, Lumberjack newspaper, a video interview with KNAU, lectured at NAU classes, radio interviews, and a community town hall at the Market of Dreams. We are fully committed to using this technology and all other technologies in a transparent fashion with our community.
We have heard many voices from the community on the issue of Flock Safety, and we have taken a proactive and transparent approach to how we utilize this technology. We have created a flock transparency portal, held multiple community information meetings on ALPR technology at the police department, done interviews with multiple media outlets including the Arizona Daily Sun, Lumberjack newspaper, a video interview with KNAU, lectured at NAU classes, radio interviews, and a community town hall at the Market of Dreams. We are fully committed to using this technology and all other technologies in a transparent fashion with our community.