“I Remember What Happens When Surveillance Becomes Normalized”
The Chandler discussion expanded beyond Flock cameras alone, with calls for a broader ordinance governing all city surveillance technologies.
Black. White. Mom. ER doctor. Student. Veterans. Dentist. Tech gurus. Residents.
People from all walks of life showed up Thursday night to exercise their right to speak as the Chandler City Council debated renewal of the city’s Flock Safety AI surveillance camera contract.
An Ahwatukee resident who lives and works in Chandler delivered a powerful warning while opposing renewal of the Flock Safety contract.
The speaker, who described himself as a German immigrant and veteran of three wars, recalled growing up during the era of East and West Germany.
“I remember what happened when government normalized surveillance in the name of security and social order.”
He described life under East Germany’s Stasi state security apparatus, where ordinary people lived under constant monitoring, records were kept on citizens, “privacy disappeared,” and fear and control became part of daily life.
“I served this country because I believe in freedom. I believe freedom matters. And freedom is not only the right to speak, it is the right to live without being constantly tracked and recorded by your own government.”
He warned the concern is not only what surveillance systems are today — but what they can become tomorrow.
Listen to his full two-minute testimony here.
41 Voices. One Message.
At the public hearing, Councilmember Christine Ellis suggested many of the speakers opposing the AI surveillance system were not from Chandler.
Mayor Kevin Hartke then required each speaker to publicly state their name and where they were from before addressing the council.
This video is a brief collage of 41 speakers who appeared at Thursday night’s hearing.
The overwhelming majority either live in Chandler, work in Chandler, went to school in Chandler, or argued that a citywide AI surveillance network logging license plates impacts drivers far beyond city limits.
Only one speaker (from Tempe) supported renewing the Flock contract. Forty spoke against it.
Flock Safety Faces Questions from Chandler City Council
On May 21, 2026, the Chandler City Council held a public hearing on whether the city should renew its contract with Flock Safety.
A representative from Flock Safety attended the meeting and answered questions from councilmembers regarding the company’s AI-powered license plate reader system, data practices, oversight, and public concerns surrounding surveillance technology.
This video is a highly edited compilation highlighting key exchanges between the council and Flock Safety during the hearing. View the full meeting here.
During a lengthy and at times tense Q&A session on May 21, 2026, Chandler Councilmember OD Harris pressed the Flock Safety representative, Police Chief Bryan Chapman, and city leadership on issues ranging from data ownership and cloud retention to Fourth Amendment concerns, audits, oversight, data sharing, drones as first responders, and the broader expansion of government surveillance technology.
Harris repeatedly called for stronger guardrails, a citywide surveillance ordinance, public oversight, and a pause on renewing the contract until the city could better evaluate outcomes, retention policies, and who Chandler shares data with.
Harris ultimately asked for all Flock cameras to be deactivated pending further review, but no other councilmember supported the motion.
After extended debate, the Chandler City Council voted 5-1 to table discussion on renewing the Flock contract until July 16, 2026. The cameras will remain active.
Note: During the public comment portion of the meeting, one speaker stated that the Flock Safety representative had left the hearing. However, the representative remained present for additional questioning from councilmembers following public input and prior to the council vote.
Jen’s Two Cents.
What stood out most to me during last night’s Chandler City Council hearing was the growing call for a citywide surveillance ordinance.
After watching hundreds of hours of city council meetings across Arizona involving license plate readers, this moment struck me. Arizona currently has no comprehensive statewide policy governing how cities use vehicle surveillance technology such as Flock Safety and other third-party ALPR vendors. Instead, retention periods, data sharing practices, and oversight largely vary from city to city.
Right now, Arizona Senate President Petersen says there is “no consensus” on either of the competing license plate reader bills (both strikers) moving through the Legislature. One would largely preserve the way many Arizona cities already use ALPR systems today. And another that would impose some of the strictest guardrails on the technology anywhere in the country.
It is also important to note that many of the concerns raised in Chandler are not new to law enforcement discussions surrounding ALPR technology. Questions about data retention, information sharing, oversight, audits, constitutional protections, and long-term surveillance capabilities have been surfacing in hearings across Arizona for months.
And finally, it is entirely possible to support law enforcement while also believing privacy and digital protections matter.
There is a meaningful difference between cameras passively recording incidents on public streets and AI-powered license plate reader systems that can store and catalog the movements of vehicles for months… and in some Arizona cities, up to a year.
As Councilmember Harris explained, “Community trust in local control… when residents believe every trip to work, school, church or the doctor is logged in a national database, it undermines trust in both our police department and in this council.”