Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office tied to 279 searches
There were 3,259,997 searches of Coconino County Sheriff’s Office network of 20 Flock Safety automated license plate readers by 3,815 law enforcement agencies from the start of 2026 through July 22, according to CCSO’s network audit logs obtained by Larson Newspapers.
The Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office ran 106 searches and the Cottonwood Police Department 649, while another 173 searches were run by other agencies citing YCSO or a YCSO case. The Camp Verde Marshal’s Office, which does not use Flock, ran 24 searches. CCSO had data-sharing agreements with 94 law enforcement agencies when it rolled the program out, including CPD, YCSO and the Prescott and Prescott Valley police departments.
ALPR cameras photograph every vehicle passing by, capturing the plate number and other features — that data is sent to cloud servers and used to generate searchable profiles. CCSO’s policy is to retain the license plate data collected for 30 days. Nearly 16,000 times a day, the rural county of Coconino is searched — overwhelmingly by agencies outside of Arizona.
The Dallas Police Department conducted the most searches of CCSO’s network with 313,404, ahead of the California Highway Patrol’s 299,216. The Texas Department of Public Safety was third at 75,432, followed by the Houston Police Department with 72,184. Together, the top 10 agencies accounted for 957,176 searches — 29.4% of the total.
Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office
While YCSO does not operate Flock cameras, it accepted $71,381 for four vehicle-mounted Vigilant Solutions ALPRs in July 2023 for drug and human trafficking interdiction. YCSO ran 106 searches of CCSO’s network — another 173 searches were run by other agencies that named YCSO or a YCSO case in the stated reason, 93 of which explicitly identified YCSO as the requesting or assisted agency. About 50% of the Flock activity connected to YCSO took place on another department’s account.
The Prescott Police Department ran 132 of those searches, including 65 requests explicitly stating YCSO, and attached a case number to every one. CPD ran 18, including 13 explicit requests, and attached a case number to four.
The 106 YCSO searches were concentrated in property and financial crime: burglary at 28, embezzlement or fraud at 21, missing persons at 15, stolen property at 14 and narcotics at 11, along with six stalking searches, two arson and one homicide.
Across all 279 searches, burglary was the most frequently cited offense at 38 searches, followed by motor vehicle theft at 30, missing or endangered persons at 26, welfare checks at 24 and financial crimes such as embezzlement and fraud at 21. Stolen property and domestic assault accounted for 14 each, narcotics 11, and outstanding warrants and disorderly conduct nine each. Stalking was cited six times, threats or harassment five, vandalism five, larceny four, sex offenses, hit and run, kidnapping and DUI three each, and arson, traffic infractions and trespass two each.
Forty-three searches, all of them run by outside agencies, were filed under the category “Other,” and none of the total 279 YCSO-connected searches was logged as a human trafficking investigation.
Homeland Security Investigations, the investigative arm of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ran no searches of CCSO’s network and holds no account on it. HSI is cited in the stated reason for 404 searches run by 38 other agencies, among them five in Arizona: Mesa police with 45, DPS with 27, Tolleson police with 14, CCSO with nine and YCSO with one. The searches were logged under narcotics 136 times, human trafficking 88, weapons 51 and financial crime 23. None referenced immigration status, deportation or removal. Searches assisting HSI without a written note leave no record of it.
The lone YCSO search citing HSI was run Jan. 7 and logged under drugs/narcotics with the written reason “drug investigation -PV HSI.” It reached 5,730 networks and had no case number.
Larson Newspapers requested the Prescott Valley and Prescott police departments provide their network audit logs.
YCSO spokesman Paul Wick did not respond to multiple requests for comment on questions about YCSO’s policies governing when its deputies may search another agency’s ALPR network even though YCSO has no Flock contract.
