Sheriff Ross Teeple Testifies To Congress About Flock Cameras

Summary

Pinal County Sheriff Ross Teeple told a Senate subcommittee that automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) can help police solve crimes, locate missing people, and respond to alerts. He cited a recent fatal crash in which investigators used an ALPR to identify an aggressive driver who had rammed a woman’s car.

Teeple said he ended the county’s Flock camera contract after residents raised questions and the company failed to give him clear answers about its technology. He stressed that he had no reason to believe his deputies had misused the system; his concerns were about what the network could enable. He described a gap between Flock’s earlier statements about its cameras and later claims about using AI to create a “digital fingerprint” of a vehicle.

His central concern was that AI-enabled camera networks could go beyond recording a plate at a particular moment and build a detailed record of a person’s movements—potentially equivalent to tracking a vehicle without a warrant. He argued that law enforcement should protect Fourth Amendment rights proactively rather than wait for courts to rule on the limits. He invoked the history of Miranda v. Arizona as an example of why safeguards should not be delayed.

Teeple called for clear legislative limits on ALPR use, warning that unchecked surveillance could provoke legal challenges that undermine legitimate, life-saving uses of the technology. In questions from senators, he discussed proposed safeguards, including limiting systems to still images of license plates rather than live streaming or video recording, requiring access controls tied to law-enforcement systems, and imposing serious penalties for improper access. He also noted that the National Sheriffs’ Association and Large County Sheriffs’ Association had recently issued guidelines he viewed as a constructive step.

Presenters and Contributors

• Sheriff Ross Teeple, Pinal County, Arizona
• Senator Josh Hawley, committee chair
• Senator Dick Durbin, ranking member
• Senator Cory Booker
• Other unnamed subcommittee members