La Paz County

On 5 January 2026 the La Paz County Board of Supervisors approved $537,963.50 from the state’s Local Border Support Program for its Sheriff’s Office. The agenda described it as “a budgeted item, there is no match required, and there is no fiscal impact”. The minutes record what was said before the vote: “There were no comments or questions.” The motion passed unanimously.

La Paz County borders California, not Mexico.

How border money travels

Nine Arizona counties in this project’s reading have Local Border Support agreements with the state’s Department of Public Safety: Cochise, Yavapai, Yuma, Coconino, Pinal, Gila, La Paz, Apache and Greenlee. Seven of the nine are not on the Mexican border. La Paz borders California, Coconino borders Utah, and Apache borders both New Mexico and Utah.

Nothing about that is unlawful. Trafficking routes run inland and the program’s terms cover them. What La Paz shows is the arrangement at its plainest. Money that is fully funded, needs no local match and has no effect on the county budget leaves a board little on the agenda to weigh, and at this meeting the minutes record no comments or questions.

The plate reader companies in the bill list

This county pays Flock Safety and it pays Vigilant Solutions. Both make automated license plate readers, and they compete with each other. La Paz is the only Arizona county we have read whose own record shows payments to both.

Neither appears as a contract. They appear inside routine lists of bills, approved together with several dozen other payments in alphabetical order. Flock Safety was paid $13,039.39 in April 2024 and $32,850 in February 2025. Vigilant Solutions was paid $1,092 in March 2023.

A resident reading those agendas would see a line item. Nothing about it is hidden. It is not presented as a decision, because by the time a bill is paid the decision has already been made.

What the record covers

We read the county’s published agendas and minutes. Fifty five agendas from 2023 and 2024 are posted as blank one-page files, so for those two years we read what the Board decided, in its minutes, and not everything it put on its agendas.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation credits plate readers to the Sheriff’s Office and to the Parker and Quartzsite police departments. The county’s own record shows it paying two plate reader companies. It does not say what was bought, where the cameras are, how long the data is kept or who else can search it. Those are the records requests.

Where this leaves a resident

The Board meets at 10 in the morning at 1108 Joshua Avenue in Parker, and the call to the public is three minutes for people attending in person. We found no remote speaking option.

If the item you care about is a payment, the money will already have been spent by the time it reaches the agenda. The time to ask about a plate reader contract is when one comes before the Board to be approved, and that agenda is published in advance.