Tempe recently installed more than a dozen new traffic cameras at some of its busiest intersections. That’s something Pinal County likely won’t see anytime soon. 

“Red-light running cameras violate your due process rights and as long as I’m the sheriff, I will never have them in Pinal County,” Sheriff Ross Teeple said during the Arizona Republican Assembly’s Northwest Pinal County Chapter meeting at Maricopa’s IHOP Tuesday night. 

Although Arizona is not one of them, red-light cameras are illegal in nine states such as Texas where they’ve been ruled unconstitutional. 

On the other hand, Teeple sees Flock license plate-reading cameras, which alert law enforcement officers to the locations of wanted vehicles in real time, as not only constitutional but a benefit to society. 

“Those cameras enhance public safety,” Teeple said. “All the Flock cameras do is just record traffic that goes by, and I can’t tell you how many Silver Alerts have been resolved and AMBER Alerts that have been resolved from those cameras.” 

“We used them a lot for the smugglers for the last eight years,” the sheriff added. 

Flock cameras were first installed in Maricopa city limits in 2019. They are used in thousands of other cities across 49 states, according to the Flock Safety website. 

Recent police reports showed that Maricopa Police Department utilized the Flock cameras to narrow down suspects of the November Maricopa Meadows murder by comparing suspect vehicles to one that entered and left the area before and after the homicide. They also assisted in later arrests for the case. 

Maricopa police have also used them in dozens of other arrests that InMaricopa has reported on like a multi-crime probe involving a man who resembled Stewie Griffin, a stolen U-Haul out of California and a man who went on a self-proclaimed “police chase” on Maricopa-Casa Grande highway. 

The thing that makes Flock cameras constitutional is that “there’s no way for them to issue a ticket,” Teeple explained.  

Flock cameras “don’t even have the ability to be converted” to red-light cameras, said Teeple, “because God forbid someday I won’t be honored enough to have this position, someone else will. I don’t want him to already have the equipment that he can change and violate you people’s and my due process rights by sending us a ticket.” 

Despite what some people may say about Flock violating privacy laws, Teeple explained there is no expectation of privacy when it comes to that little metal plate on the back of your car. 

“I’m all for your constitutional protections,” Teeple said. “You don’t have a constitutional right of privacy with your license plates. You don’t own your license plates.”