Highlights
- Surprise PD suspended its automated license plate reader program after an internal audit found potential misuse by an officer.
- The unnamed officer has been placed on administrative leave pending completion of the investigation.
- Surprise is the third Arizona city in one week to announce an officer investigation tied to license plate reader technology.
- Police Chief Evan Becher says enhanced safeguards must be in place before the program resumes.
Surprise suspended its automated license plate reader program and placed an officer on administrative leave after an internal audit uncovered potential misuse of the cameras, the city announced Wednesday.
Police Chief Evan Becher said in a statement that the department took immediate action to halt the program and open an investigation. "Public trust is of the highest importance to the Surprise Police Department and maintaining that trust requires transparency and accountably," Becher said. "While we still need to complete an investigation into this irregularity, we are taking this incident very seriously."
The city has operated the technology for more than two years, crediting it with helping solve numerous crimes. Becher said the department will not resume use of the cameras until stronger safeguards are in place. "Surprise Police Department is committed to ensuring enhanced protections are in place before reimplementing use of ALPR cameras," he said.
Why is Surprise suspending the program now?
The suspension follows an audit that identified a potential violation involving the automated license plate reader system. The officer at the center of the investigation will remain on leave until the inquiry is complete. Whether the cameras in Surprise are part of the Flock system used by other Arizona cities has not been confirmed in public records.
The Surprise action is the third announced by an Arizona city in a single week. An Apache Junction officer resigned after an internal investigation found he had used the Flock system to track his wife. Goodyear announced Tuesday that an officer is under investigation for possible misuse of the same technology. Tempe Police separately halted all data sharing from Flock cameras after community privacy concerns surfaced, and Chandler shut down its cameras last week after an employee was found to have potentially misused the Flock system.
The investigation is ongoing; no timeline for its completion has been disclosed in public statements.
Sources
Every factual claim in this article traces to one of the sources below. See how we work for the editorial process.
- AZ Family (3TV/CBS5) retrieved 13/08/2026 00:45
Authored by The Scottsdale Signal. Drafted by AI from primary-source material under our beat-specific editorial guides; reviewed by humans before publish under our five-gate process. Sources retrieved at 13/08/2026 00:45. Every claim traces to a source.
