From the Border Wall to the Freeway and Red Light Cameras, Death to the Surveillance State!

By G

On May 7th, 2025, the city of Tempe put its new Vision Zero plan into action, partnering with Mesa-based traffic and surveillance company Verra Mobility to erect 14 new red light cameras across the city. This comes 14 years after Tempe’s first traffic photo enforcement system, forced upon us courtesy of surveillance company Redflex, was deactivated in 2011. They claim that these new cameras, and the ‘enforcement’ that will come with them, are the solution to our dangerous roads. Rather than redesigning for pedestrian and driver safety, expanding public transit, or creating car free zones, city council has predictably seized upon the opportunity to expand the reach of policing and the surveillance state even further into our lives.

According to the Tempe P̶o̶l̶i̶c̶e̶ Pig Department, the cameras began capturing images of drivers on May 7th, and enforcement will begin on June 5th, after a “30 day warning period.”

These cameras have already been placed at the following intersections:

Baseline and Rural Road
Baseline Road and Mill Avenue
Southern and Mill Avenue
Warner Road and McClintock Drive
Guadalupe and McClintock Drive
University and McClintock Drive
Broadway Road and McClintock Drive
Broadway and Rural Road
Elliot and Rural Road
Elliot and Kyrene Road
University and Priest Drive
Curry and Scottsdale Road
Rio Salado Parkway and Rural/Scottsdale Road
48th Street and Broadway Road

So what can we do?

The proliferation of electronic eyes watching our every move is often ignored by both radicals, and every day folks. However, Tempe anarchists have a history of resisting the expansion of the surveillance state, particularly traffic cameras.

The establishment of traffic cameras in the Phoenix metro during the 90s and 2000s faced opposition and protest from various different political cohorts. These new traffic penalties were largely viewed as illegitimate extortions, issued by faceless machines to line the pockets of a greedy city government. Folks did what they could to outsmart the surveillance and resist the law by refusing to pay tickets or obscuring their identity from the view of the cameras. One man reportedly avoided more than 30 tickets by driving while wearing a rubber monkey mask.

Anarchists in Tempe, however, decided to take this resistance a step further by acting directly against the cameras themselves.

Only a few days before Christmas of 2008, several comrades dressed in red suits, white beards, and santa hats. They visited several of the surveilled intersections, where they wrapped up the cameras with wrapping paper, cloth, and festively decorated boxes, obscuring their lenses and bringing the gift of a surveillance-free Christmas to Tempe.

Video of the action was uploaded to Youtube, set to Santa Claus Is Coming To Town by Jackson 5, in which comrades announced:

“Ho Ho Ho! Death to the surveillance state! Free movement for all people! Only Santa knows who is naughty and nice. Lumps of coal to all those who make it their business to watch and control. From the border wall to the freeway and redlight cameras. No controls on movement!”

This action was picked up by local news, and widely celebrated by the people of Tempe. In the face of continuous legal and extralegal pressure, the city decided to finally deactivate this system in 2011.

The playful nature of the Santa action should be highlighted in this case. In the course of time spent in any radical movement, one meets an unending stream of serious people doing serious things. One of the favorite insults of the radical (especially the marxist) is the accusation of being “unserious.” This is a misstep, and one that is costing the movement dearly. People want to have fun in this wretched world before it’s too late, they want to seize the means of joy. Through fun, we foster community and cohesion.

Anarchists must devise modes of resistance that are fun, that bring us together to face the ongoing escalation of fascistic state violence against our neighbors and loved ones. Tempe must once again learn playful, militant resistance against this threat to free movement and privacy.