Official Statement on University of Arizona's Contract with Flock Safety

Below is our union's official statement on the University of Arizona's contract with Flock Safety.

Approved by the UCWAZ CWA Local 7065 Executive Committee and released publicly on Monday, September 15th 2025.

In early August, a local social justice group informed the Tucson community that the University of Arizona had contracted with Flock Safety to install approximately 54 Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) around our university’s campus. These ALPRs record license plate and vehicle information, which is then saved and shared nationally in an AI-driven database, potentially creating “permanent records of virtually everywhere any of us has driven [...] opening up many opportunities for abuse,” according to the ACLU. Concerningly, our university has not shared information about this contract or the presence of these ALPRs publicly.

There are many documented instances across the country of Flock Safety data being used to harm everyday people. While the company announced a “pause” on August 26th, Flock Safety has developed “pilot programs” with Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations. A 12-year-old child has been stopped and handcuffed due to a Flock Safety data error of a misread license plate. Officers have used the Flock database to stalk former romantic partners and to track people traveling out of state to seek abortions. Law enforcement agencies across the country shared Flock Safety data with ICE at least 4,000 times between June 2024 and May 2025.

While the expansion of surveillance should always be cause for concern, it is particularly harmful for our university to participate in collecting and sharing our personal data in a moment when our public institutions are under attack and international students are detained for nothing more than co-authoring op-eds in defense of Palestinians’ human rights. City governments from Austin to Evanston have responded to their residents’ concerns by cancelling their Flock Safety contracts, and we urge our university to join them. People across Tucson have come together to oppose the presence of ALPRs. We stand with the broader Tucson community and in defense of our university community in demanding that the University of Arizona end its contract with Flock Safety and remove the ALPRs.

In solidarity, 

Your Union, United Campus Workers of Arizona CWA Local 7065

To read or download the statement as a PDF, click the button below.