Deflock Casa Grande: Challenging Mass Surveillance in Arizona

The Deflock Casa Grande Campaign

Deflock Casa Grande is a nonpartisan civic campaign advocating for public safety guidelines, public oversight, audits, and accountability regarding the deployment of Flock Safety surveillance technology in Casa Grande, Arizona. The campaign argues that while the city markets these systems as simple license plate readers, the actual capabilities and deployment patterns suggest a broader mass surveillance grid.

Expansion Beyond License Plate Reading

Although marketed as Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs), the Flock system in Casa Grande has expanded into a comprehensive surveillance network. The city's deployment plan includes 100 LPR cameras, 100 Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) cameras, 31 Gunshot Detection Systems, and the use of Drones as First Responders (DFR).

Video Analysis and Human Identification

Flock's own patents describe a system capable of video analysis that identifies people, assigns traits, and makes real-world activity searchable. This capability allows the system to capture more than just license plates, collecting video of vehicles and individuals moving through neighborhoods regardless of whether they are suspected of a crime.

Monitoring of Public Protests

Evidence from a January 30, 2026, Casa Grande police email indicates the system was used for the "Monitoring of a student protest at City Hall." This contradicts claims that the cameras are used solely to track vehicles associated with criminal investigations.

Audio Surveillance and "Distress Monitoring"

Flock has introduced "distress monitoring," which expands gunshot-detection microphones to listen for human distress sounds. This effectively turns these devices into always-listening stations. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) warned in 2025 that these microphones were being expanded to listen for human voices.

Integration with School Systems

On May 4, 2026, the Casa Grande City Council approved connecting existing elementary school cameras to the Flock ecosystem via Flock gateways, integrating school-based surveillance into the broader AI network.

Documented Misuse of ALPR Systems

The lack of strict warrant standards for ALPR searches has led to a documented pattern of abuse. The Institute for Justice has documented at least 20 cases where police officers used ALPR access for romantic stalking, including tracking spouses, ex-partners, and romantic interests.

Notable examples include:

• Prairie Grove, Illinois (2026): A police chief was arrested after searching Flock for former romantic partners.
• Winnebago County, Illinois (2026): A former deputy was charged with stalking after monitoring an ex-girlfriend.
• Niceville, Florida (2026): An officer pleaded no contest after tracking another officer and their spouse.
• Milwaukee, Wisconsin (2025): An officer allegedly tracked a dating partner and their ex nearly 180 times over two months.
• Louisville, Kentucky (2025): An officer was charged with multiple felonies for tracking an ex-partner and friends hundreds of times.

Fiscal and Privacy Trade-offs

Resource Allocation

Casa Grande has entered a roughly 10-year, $10 million contract with Flock, averaging $1 million per year. The campaign notes that based on a police officer base pay midpoint of $74,762, this annual spend could fund approximately 13 additional sworn officers.

Permanent Data Licensing

The city has granted Flock a license to certain data created from Casa Grande images "forever," even after the contract expires. This means that while original photos may be deleted, the derived data and patterns can be retained and licensed for future use.

Community Perspectives and Insights

Discussions surrounding the deployment of Flock in Casa Grande highlight a growing tension between perceived safety and the erosion of privacy.

"I do find it very funny how over the past couple of decades US has been talking about how awful Chinese government is wrt surveillance, but now doing exactly the same but through private industry contracts instead."

Critics also suggest that the reliance on automated surveillance over human policing is a strategic error, arguing that cameras cannot perform essential police functions such as de-escalating conflicts, interviewing witnesses, or building community trust.