Arizona License Plate Reader Laws (2026)

Arizona has no statute that sets retention limits, permitted uses, audits or warrant rules for license plate readers. The one provision we found aimed at this kind of camera data is A.R.S. § 44-7953, which requires a contract between a law enforcement agency and a business running a vehicle-identifying camera system to bar the business from selling or sharing the data with third parties. Beyond that, Arizona's rules come from a 2024 Court of Appeals decision on the Fourth Amendment, general public-records law, and local decisions.

Information reviewed September 30, 2026.

For related pages, see the Arizona entry in the state comparison, the ALPR laws hub, Are Flock cameras legal?, What are Flock cameras?, and our Arizona surveillance camera laws guide.

Is there an Arizona law on license plate readers?

Only a narrow one. Section 44-7953 reads: "A contract between a law enforcement agency and a business that uses a camera system that has the sole purpose of identifying motor vehicles must include a provision that prohibits the business from selling or disseminating to third parties any data collected by the camera system." It sits in Title 44, chapter 38, "Businesses generally."

That provision regulates a contract term. It does not say what an agency may use the data for, how long anyone may keep it, who may search it, or what happens if a contract omits the clause. It names no penalty and does not say who enforces it. It was added by Laws 2026, chapter 232 (SB 1552, a transportation omnibus bill), which the Governor approved on June 22, 2026, and it took effect on the general effective date, September 12, 2026. The act does not say whether the clause applies to contracts signed before that date.

We also looked at two provisions that mention plate technology but are not plate reader rules. A.R.S. § 28-7751(3) defines toll "electronic transaction and payment technology" to include "automatic vehicle license plate recognition technology," which authorizes a way to pay tolls and sets no retention, use or sharing rule for police plate data. A.R.S. § 28-1206 says the state or a local authority "may not use a photo enforcement system on a state highway in this state to identify violators of article 3 or 6 of this chapter." That limits traffic-camera enforcement, not plate readers.

How do we know there is no broader Arizona statute?

We read the tables of contents of A.R.S. Titles 28, 13, 39, 41 and 11 and searched them by keyword for plate, camera, photo enforcement and automated. We opened and read the sections named on this page, including Title 44 chapter 38, Title 28's photo-enforcement and toll articles, and § 39-121. For Titles 13, 41 and 11 we scanned section titles only and did not open the section text, so a negative there is weaker than a full-text search. We also scanned the official 2025 and 2026 bill lists by title. Arizona's legislative site became unreachable partway through our work, which limited what we could open. Treat "we found no statute" as a statement about our search, and check the current code.

What did the Arizona Court of Appeals say in State v. Sidor?

State v. Sidor, 558 P.3d 621 (Ariz. Ct. App. 2024), a published opinion of Division One filed October 17, 2024, affirmed a conviction and denied suppression. A Department of Public Safety officer used the DEA's DEASIL database of license plate images captured by plate readers to see travel history for the driver's car. The record described one picture of the car's plate, taken in Kansas the day before the driver was stopped near Kingman on his return.

The court held that, on those facts, the officer's use of that data did not violate the driver's Fourth Amendment reasonable expectation of privacy. Its reasoning was that the officer accessed only one picture of the plate, not the "whole of" the driver's movements, and that the driver had no privacy interest in other travelers' location data. The court also said "the use of ALPR data may soon be so widespread as to risk offering government the very comprehensive surveillance decried in Carpenter." Presiding Judge Brown agreed that accessing the DEASIL data was not a Fourth Amendment search on this record, but dissented because he found the data too thin to give the officer reasonable suspicion to prolong the stop.

The opinion also discussed the private-affairs clause of Arizona's constitution, Article 2, section 8, through State v. Juarez, which requires a person to show that his or her own privacy rights were infringed before attacking a search. We did not fetch the constitutional text, so we do not quote it here. We did not check whether a petition for review followed. Sidor is a ruling on one set of facts, not a general answer to whether plate reader use is lawful.

A second case, State v. Alvarez-Soto (Ariz. Nov. 28, 2025), is a traffic-stop suppression case in which a trooper ran the car's plate through a plate reader and did a border-crossings check. The plate reader appears as a background fact, and the rulings concern the stop, so it is not an ALPR holding.

Can you get plate reader data through Arizona public records?

Arizona's public-records statute, A.R.S. § 39-121, provides that "Public records and other matters in the custody of any officer shall be open to inspection by any person at all times during office hours." We found no ALPR-specific exemption or confidentiality statute in the titles we enumerated, and no Arizona court ruling or Attorney General opinion on whether plate data is a public record. We did not search Attorney General opinions. Whether plate reads, hot lists, camera locations or audit logs must be released depends on general public-records exemptions we did not analyze, so treat this as unsettled and ask the agency.

What happened to the 2026 Arizona plate reader bills?

One 2026 measure that did become law was not a plate reader bill: SB 1552, a transportation omnibus, added the § 44-7953 contract clause. The 2026 session (57th Legislature, second regular session) also saw three bills aimed at plate readers, and none of them became law:

• SB 1111, plate readers and privacy. It passed a Senate committee 7-2 as an amended strike-everything bill on February 10, 2026, and passed the Committee of the Whole as amended on March 4, 2026, after a floor motion to amend failed 14-16. Its final disposition in the official bill data is "Held awaiting Third Reading," so it never passed the Senate. The Senate fact sheet says it would have limited law enforcement use to legitimate purposes, required a case or incident number to access data, required a warrant or subpoena after 48 hours with exceptions, required password-protected access with logs and annual audits, made willful misuse a class 6 felony, and exempted plate data from public records requests.
• SB 1138, automated license plate readers. A Senate committee passed it 6-3 as an amended strike-everything bill on February 24, 2026, and its final disposition is "Held in Rules." We did not read its text.
• SB 1804, law enforcement, cameras and data storage. Its final disposition is "Held in Committees." We did not read its content.

Because they died, none of their provisions is Arizona law.

Where have Arizona cities ended plate reader programs?

This list is not complete, and its sources vary in quality. Our records show three programs ended:

• Sedona: ended September 9, 2025, per a Red Rock News report headlined that the city council told staff to get the Flock out of town.
• Flagstaff: ended December 16, 2025, per a city announcement.
• Tempe: ended August 26, 2026, per an azfamily report headlined that Tempe turned off its Flock cameras and ended its contract with the company.

Sedona and Tempe are news reports; Flagstaff is a city press release.

How can I check my local system?

Ask who runs the cameras. If a business operates a vehicle-identifying camera system under a contract with a police agency, § 44-7953 says the contract must bar the business from selling or sharing the data with third parties, so you can ask the agency whether its contract contains that clause. You can also ask the agency for its written policy and any retention schedule. For the technology itself, see What are Flock cameras?.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Arizona have a license plate reader law?

Not a comprehensive one. A.R.S. § 44-7953 requires contracts between law enforcement agencies and businesses running vehicle-identifying camera systems to bar third-party sale or dissemination of the data. We found no statute on retention, permitted uses, audits or warrants.

How long can Arizona police keep plate reader data?

We found no Arizona statute setting a retention period. We did not review Department of Public Safety or local policies or the state records-retention schedule, so an agency policy may set one.

Is it legal in Arizona for police to search plate reader databases without a warrant?

In State v. Sidor (Ariz. Ct. App. 2024), the court held that an officer's use of a DEA database of plate-reader images did not violate the driver's Fourth Amendment expectation of privacy on those facts. The court warned that widespread use could risk comprehensive surveillance. The dissenting judge agreed there was no search and dissented on other grounds.

Did Arizona pass a plate reader bill in 2026?

Not a dedicated one. SB 1552, a 2026 transportation bill, added A.R.S. § 44-7953, effective September 12, 2026, which requires police contracts with vehicle-identifying camera businesses to bar third-party sale or dissemination of the data. The broader plate reader bills, SB 1111, SB 1138 and SB 1804, did not become law.

Can I request Arizona plate reader records?

Arizona public records are open to inspection under A.R.S. § 39-121. We found no ALPR-specific exemption, but whether particular plate data must be released depends on other exemptions and is unsettled in the sources we reviewed.

Have any Arizona cities stopped using Flock cameras?

According to the local records we found, Sedona, Flagstaff and Tempe each ended a Flock program, in September 2025, December 2025 and August 2026. The list is not complete.