Plate-reading cameras help officers in multitude of ways

Among the crime-fighting tools the Maricopa Police Department has at its disposal are license-plate reading cameras.  

Officers have access to data from 1,360 such cameras across Arizona, according to Monica Williams, a spokesperson for Maricopa emergency services.  

Thirty-two license-plate cameras are in Maricopa.  

According to Flock Safety, the camera company, their products are used in 42 states, sending real-time alerts to law enforcement of a wanted vehicle’s location. 

“This cooperative effort (among law-enforcement agencies) allows us to solve crimes and recover stolen property more quickly and hold those accountable who commit these crimes,” Williams said.  

Cameras were installed in Maricopa in 2019 and 2020.  They take still photos but cannot capture video, Williams said. She compares them to red-light cameras. They snap a photo of the rear of a vehicle and use a type of artificial intelligence to decipher the plate number. The photos are uploaded to a database. They are automatically purged after 30 days. 

If a person is wanted or missing, the license-plate cameras can help law enforcement find them, Williams explained.  

Maricopa police located a missing man from Texas in Maricopa and got him home safely in December of 2021. 

In another incident, according to Williams, “We got a call that a woman was having suicidal thoughts and was a danger to herself.”  

Officers entered her vehicle information into the database, located the woman and got her help. 

“These cameras download photos of vehicle license plates that pass the camera and check them against national and local hotlists for stolen vehicles, stolen plates, registered sex offenders and subjects with major felony warrants,” Williams said. 

Maricopa police share information with more than two-dozen law-enforcement agencies, creating a web of communication, Williams explained.  

A recent example of the benefit of license-plate cameras in Maricopa was a photo leading to the arrest on March 5 of a man with a stolen vehicle in Phoenix. The camera picked up the vehicle here. 

Alberto C. Mendez, 36, was arrested and booked into Pinal County jail on suspicion of theft of means of transportation as well as on warrants on suspicion of narcotic smuggling and interfering with judicial proceedings, according to Maricopa police and Pinal County online jail records. 

At 11:52 p.m., officers received a Flock alert that a white Chevrolet Silverado stolen in Phoenix was in Maricopa.  

According to MPD, officers located the truck attempting to turn left from State Route 238 onto north SR 347. Officers made a traffic stop on the vehicle near SR 347 and Lakeview Drive. 

Mendez was arrested without incident. A records check revealed Mendez also had two unrelated warrants. He was booked into jail on the Maricopa charges on a secured bond of $5,000. He also was booked on a warrant from Pima County on narcotic smuggling, with a secured bond of $75,000; and on a on a secured bond of $500 on a warrant from Maricopa County on suspicion of interfering with judicial proceedings.  

He has a court hearing on March 10 at Pinal County Superior Court, according to Pinal County jail records. 

Other uses of license-plate reading cameras: 

• Man accused of driving away from police in girlfriend’s car arrested – InMaricopa 
• Vehicle theft, dangerous-drug possession among 4 charges man facing – InMaricopa 
• Silver Alert: Police search for missing 73-year-old Maricopa man – InMaricopa 

How do you feel about having license-plate reading cameras around Maricopa? Vote in our unscientific poll below.

Poll closed March 17, 2023.