The Sedona Police Department’s Automated License Plate Reader program with Flock Group, Inc. has been indefinitely shut off following a majority consensus of Sedona City Council special meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 13, with an at-times clamorous 50 attendees — 12 speaking against the program and two in support.
The majority consensus was reached through Councilwomen Melissa Dunn and Kathy Kinsella, and Councilmen Brian Fultz, Derek Pfaff and Pete Furman supporting the shutoff direction and Jablow leaning against. Vice Mayor Holli Ploog was absent.
“This is not mass surveillance,” Flock Director of Public Affairs Trevor Chandler said, drawing laughter from the attendees.
“Mass surveillance is indiscriminate surveillance,” as defined by Privacy International. “Mass surveillance uses systems or technologies that collect, analyze and/or generate data on indefinite or large numbers of people instead of limiting surveillance to individuals about which there is reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing.”
The council additionally directed city staff to provide a timeline of past discussions by the city leading up to the installation of its 11 Flock cameras with an additional one awaiting installation, form a citizen work group and return with a pilot program proposal.
“[ALPR] seems to be a legal and useful law enforcement tool,” Furman later said. “The question will be in the details of who we share data with and exactly what data.” He said SPD Patrol Cmdr. Chris Dowell told him police didn’t find it useful to have access to ALPRs while policy is being developed.
“If there’s one kidnapped child that we get an Amber Alert for, this tool can help us find that is the price that I’m willing to pay,” Furman said at the meeting.
Dowell said he’s the only person in SPD with access to the ALPR.
“ALPR is not a mass surveillance tool; it is a focused, objective investigative asset governed by strict data retention policies and transparency protocols. It enhances public safety without compromising community privacy,” Dowell said. “Under Supreme Court precedent, you do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in movement on public roadways. … Privacy on roadways and civil liberties are valid concerns … and that’s why we have the protocols in place. “In fact, we went a step above … in our policy ‘Hot List’ entries cannot be made without a supervisor’s approval.”
“Hot lists” are license plates flagged by law enforcement and are often associated with wanted persons or stolen vehicles. While those flagged plates have a narrow focus in order to record those vehicles, an ALPR scans and records every single vehicle in its field of vision. That data is then stored in the cloud and is typically held for 30 days.
“It can pick up unique [vehicle] features, you don’t necessarily have to have a license plate,” Dowell said. “I can just put in: ‘Silver, Ford Explorer with [a] bumper sticker in the back window,’ and it will search that instead of just needing a license plate.”
Critics such as the American Civil Liberties Union have noted that while data like that can appear innocuous, capturing details like bumper stickers can potentially record an individual’s political beliefs.
“I was very impressed with the Congressional Research Service report in the [council] packet, and it clearly outlines that under many courts’ interpretations to date, [ALPR] is not mass surveillance and it’s legal,” Furman later said.
While Dowell noted law enforcement can reconstruct a suspect’s cross-country movements, the timeline and decision-making process behind Sedona’s installation of its own camera network remains unclear.
Timeline
When Kinsella asked when and who prioritized the program, Sedona Police Chief Stephanie Foley said ALPR was prioritized by Jablow on April 18, 2024 during the budget work session.
Jablow had asked Foley to come to council on April 18, 2024, to discuss ALPRs after SPD presented its budget the previous day. Jablow cited Cottonwood’s network of 10 cameras.
“I’m just worried how many people are coming into our city that we’re missing,” Jablow said in 2024. “So if it could be really looked at for next year, not for this budget, but for next year.”
Jablow introduced and ended Foley’s April 2024 presentation by saying the ALPRs were “something just to have it on your radar for the future.”
“[ALPR] is very much on our radar, and hopefully next year, this will be one of the topics that we’ll be discussing,” Foley said to council on April 18, 2024. “We’re going to look at all of it and really come with a good idea of what we would potentially want and present to you.”
The ALPR funds were put into the SPD budget for technology upgrades, said City Manager Anette Spickard, who was hired shortly before the April 2024 budget discussion.
“When we went into the actual budget year, the funds were there,” Spickard said. “It was my understanding at that time that this was a project that was expected to be implemented.”
Spickard said the 2025 ALPR purchase fell within her delegated authority, met requirements and that it seemed to her the council expected it to be installed, based on the 2024 talks, so she signed the Flock contract.
“I thought I was doing the right thing back when I first got hired and was given the direction from what I thought was the intent of the council,” Spickard said.
The city’s position is the Flock cameras were considered part of “routine police department programing,” City Communications Manager Lauren Browne stated in the NEWS’ June 20 story that Sedona’s network was installed without ever being agendized by council and was mentioned without a definite plan during the budget work sessions on April 30 and May 1.
“Implement and optimize the use of Flock LPR technology,” was listed among five objectives for Fiscal Year 2025- 26 in the proposed budget as one mention of Flock ALPR technology in the FY ’26’s budget packet discussed.
“Where was the public outreach regarding the use of these cameras in the community. When did that happen? How did it happen? Who was involved?” Dunn asked Foley during the meeting Aug. 13, 2025. “We talk about outreach with every other department. Everything that we do, we ask for outreach to the community. It feels like we failed here.”
“As far as I know, the first line that went out was either by our PR team to the newspaper. … I’d have to go back and look, because I know that either we reached out to the newspaper or vice versa [Browne] put out, potentially something on social media, but I have to go back and look at what that first point of contact was,” Foley responded.
The NEWS was not notified in advance of installation. Residents posted photos of and comments about the Flock cameras in early June 2025. The NEWS contacted city officials on June 6 and received a response on June 11. The city posted a statement to Facebook on June 12. The first NEWS story was published June 20.
“I think it was looked at to be no different than body worn cameras,” Jablow subsequently said to the NEWS about Foley’s comments. “Sometimes the tools of [SPD] are just tools, and I think that may have been an issue of why it didn’t come forward as it was looked at as a tool instead of an item, which is unfortunate, but are we supposed to put everything through the public meetings? Are we going to look at guns? … These are the professionals. They need to have a little bit of leeway with what they use, and also, if it’s for the protection of the community. Do we want everything out there? Sometimes the safety of the community has to take precedence.”
Council is scheduled to have a discussion and possible vote on an agreement with Axon Enterprise for the purchase of $1.2 million in tasers, patrol car cameras and officer cameras during its Tuesday, Aug. 26 meeting, Jablow said.
Public Outreach
“Absolutely there should have been more messaging [about what] we had done and more openness,” Foley said. “I definitely think it’s a lesson going forward of what our community expects and the type of topics that you would like to be involved in.”
Staff repeatedly suggested going forward with a “pilot program” for ALPR cameras during the meeting. Foley said she believed the program was worth supporting.
Deterrence
Dowell cited ALPR for saving the life of one man who attempted suicide this month at Posse Grounds Park after SPD received an alert from Arizona Department of Public Safety, Cottonwood Police Department’s ALPR alerting SPD to an aggravated assault suspect en route to the city also this month and meeting documents included three CPD incidents.
CPD has not responded to a NEWS July 22 information request asking for an investigation log where ALPR data was used.
“There’s quite a few instances where, with the help of [CPD] interacting with [SPD], we were able to hopefully get bad actors off our roads and out of our neighborhoods,” Jablow said. “People can look at the [Sedona] Red Rock News. They’re really good at putting the police information out there once or twice a month. There’s bad people coming in here.”
“I’m just encouraging the council to please consider this as a proper law enforcement tool to assist our PD … and not being a bubble or a donut hole, so to speak, in the state,” Spickard said.
“I’m wondering whether there’s any data? Stories, maybe anecdotal at this point of criminals seeking out places where there aren’t [ALPRs].” Furman asked.
“I have no data specific to that,” Chandler responded. Dowell gave an anecdotal answer.
“I don’t see what collecting the data that we can’t utilize in the field would give us, outside of seeing what we’re missing,” Foley said. “If you would like us to keep it on and then do an audit to say ‘in the time that we’ve had it and haven’t utilized it, we’ve missed this many hits.’ That would be a value to you. For us to present how many things we would have investigated or gone after. … But for us just to sit there with it and not utilize it, just kind of let you know that things are coming into town and our hands are tied, and so I hope you enjoy your free pass through town.”
“I will go along with that, whether the others do or not, I think the community should know what’s going through our town,” Jablow said. “Like you said, ‘Welcome to Sedona. Have a free pass.’ I think that was very eloquent, thank you. If I’m only one so be it.”
There is currently no timeline for bringing the Flock cameras back before council or how a citizen work group would be formed.
“I understand the public’s right to be concerned [because] everybody’s concerned about privacy, and especially with [Immigration and Customs Enforcement],” Jablow subsequently said. “I’m hoping that council and the residents can come together, and we have a compromise that we can help soothe the concerns of residents with the privacy issues, but also protect [us] from criminals who are coming through our community.”
