Chandler audit finds unexplained system use; city ends the program
A routine audit at Chandler PD identified, for the first time in three years of audits, an anomaly in license plate reader use that could not be explained by standard police action. The chief described it as potential misuse by someone inside the department. The city cut all access and ended the program.
The significant detail is not that misuse happened. It is that Chandler had been running audits for three years before one caught anything.
That cuts both ways, honestly. It shows an audit process that eventually worked — the department found this itself, not because a victim complained. It also shows how long a system can run before routine oversight surfaces a problem, and it leaves open how much went undetected in the years before.
What Chandler concluded is the part worth putting to any council considering the same technology: the department did not respond by tightening controls and carrying on. It stopped.
See the full Decision Record entry for the contract, the timeline, and the records still outstanding.
Outcome
All 40 cameras discontinued and the service agreement not renewed. Access revoked for every member of the department. The city committed to policy revision, additional audit procedures, and new reporting requirements. An internal investigation was ongoing at the time of announcement.
The city stated that its initial review made clear no Chandler resident or member of the public had their privacy compromised. That is the city's characterization of an investigation it had not yet completed, and we present it as the city's position rather than as an established fact.