From Border Security to Neighborhood Surveillance: How Grants and Local Deals Are Funding Arizona’s Expanding ALPR and Video Networks

Critics describe the systems as mass surveillance; agencies and vendors describe them as data-driven public-safety tools.

In a town of roughly 55,000 residents, nestled between high desert and mountain air, Prescott Valley, Arizona prides itself on being a safe, close-knit community — the kind of place where neighbors still look out for one another, and “keeping the community safe” is more than just a slogan.

That mission now includes automated license-plate readers (ALPRs)…