By Scott Bennett, Graham County Attorney
As one of 15 county attorneys elected in Arizona, I witness daily how hard law enforcement works across our state.
In rural Graham County, the limited size of our departments sometimes requires sending officers to calls alone, miles from backup. In Maricopa County, numerous departments coordinate together to cover one of the largest urban areas in the U.S.
Thankfully, technologies have been developed to supplement the dedicated work of our police officers. These innovations help officers find missing people, catch unsafe drivers and document crimes; while bolstering cases my team argues in court to bring offenders to justice.
That’s why I’m urging the Legislature to ensure HB 2917 does not move forward.
The bill’s intentions merit discussion. Arizonans have legitimate questions about how public safety technology is used, and we should have an open dialogue on this issue.
But in this case, the bill is written so broadly that it could threaten basic tools most people would never want to restrict, such as police body cameras and courthouse security systems.
The problem is that the bill uses a sweeping definition of law enforcement technology that could cover almost any device.
Then it treats allof those different technologies as if they were the same as automated license plate readers, for instance, requiring systems to capture only vehicle plates and mandating that data be deleted within three minutes if there’s no match.
A body camera can’t meet those requirements. Neither can a security system in a jail, a school or a stadium. It would even undermine the ability of cities and counties to conduct everyday traffic-flow studies.
The practical result won’t be a sensible protection of privacy. It will be the elimination of vital, time-tested methods that keep our communities and officers safe.
A stark example of this happened down the highway from my officejust last year.
A Mississippi man suspected of murdering his mother and two sisters was on the run. After license-plate readers clocked his vehicle right here in Graham County,Department of Public Safety officers pulled him over. Thankfully, officers were alerted to this high-risk individual thanks to information shared across law enforcement agencies, and when the man exited the vehicle firing at officers without warning, law enforcement was prepared and no police officer was hurt.
I am certainly not arguing for zero oversight of criminal investigative tools. Reasonable guardrails make sense. But this bill, as written, goes too far.
Not only could it hamper investigations and force important evidence to be thrown out of court, most importantly this legislation will leave communities like ours with fewer tools to protect people.
Don’t handcuff our law enforcement officers for no reason.If so inclined, please reach out to your representatives and share your opinion on HB2917.
Graham County Attorney Scott Bennett was elected in 2020. He currently serves as chair of the Arizona Prosecuting Attorneys’ Advisory Council and is Arizona’s delegate and board member to the National District Attorneys Association.
