Anti-Flock Sullivan County Commissioners Propose First-Of-Its-Kind Camera Ban

Image Credit: Sullivan County Commission, Lake Derrick / Facebook & Canva.

Article by Olivia Lupia, Tennessee Conservative News –

While the Sullivan County Commission unanimously voted last month not to renew their contract with Flock Safety, two commissioners are taking things one step further by proposing a new unique proposal that would automatically ban license plate readers (LPRs) and automated license plate readers (ALPRs) in the county if granted the authority to do so. 

The resolution comes from Commissioners Lakie Derrick and Joe Carr, who made national headlines for his public excoriation of a Flock executive preceding the commission’s vote on the contract.

If passed, the proposal would act as a trigger law, taking effect if the state or federal government authorized local government to ban the cameras, though it would not apply to license plate readers in Tennessee Highway Patrol vehicles.

“I’m trying to keep the fight going by doing a trigger law resolution that would be the first in the nation that would ban all ALPRs here in Sullivan County, public or private, the second we get authority from either the state legislature or Congress to do so,” Carr explained. “And my reasoning for that is, we’ve gotten rid of it at the county level, but it could still be in Sullivan County as like a private company using it or like a neighborhood using them, some company like Walmart or one of them could use that in one of their parking lots. 

And so, I wanted to go ahead and put that out there to try and get it completely banned in Sullivan County, no loopholes, and I also want to try and steer the conversation at the state level towards a total ban of it or at least giving counties the option to choose if that’s something that they want to have in their county or not.”

Upon the resolution’s presentation, some commissioners contended they did not want to strip law enforcement of tools while another said he did not see the merit in voting on something that “has no meaning” unless higher forms of government permit it. But the resolution still received enough support to move to first reading, and the body will take it up again in October.

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has offered his own opinion on the cameras, saying they are likely legal under certain circumstances, but also acknowledged the technology can be abused. 

“If you’re collecting data in plain view for a limited purpose, it’s probably okay. I mean, if you went and stood by the side of the highway, you could see license plates go by. And there are times when someone’s been kidnapped or where someone’s on the run after a murder where it’s really useful to have,” Skrmetti said. “If you start aggregating that data to get a more complete picture of somebody’s day to day life, it starts getting creepy. And that’s where the law draws the line.”

The AG does expect the General Assembly to address the issue next year, though he did not indicate what the scope of any legislation could be. “Now, there are some people that want to ban them altogether. And that’s a decision that the legislature could make,” he said. “But they could also put in safeguards to say, ‘hey, you can only retain this data for a short time. You’re only allowed to get the license place.’”

But Commissioner Carr thinks lawmakers should lean more towards outlawing the technology. “One of the things that concerns me is a lot of people are talking about putting guardrails on this type of stuff. I think a lot of people don’t want guardrails, they would rather just not have this technology in their backyard tracking everywhere they go…But if you’re going to have this technology, and again, I feel like it’s too dangerous to have, but if you’re gonna have it, I think the bare minimum standard should be get a warrant to do this so that way everything’s above board.”

Sources:

TennesseeConservativenNews.com.

Fox News.

WJHL.

WVLT.

About the Author: Olivia Lupia is a political refugee from Colorado who now calls Tennessee home. A proud follower of Christ, she views all political happenings through a Biblical lens and aims to utilize her knowledge and experience to educate and equip others. Olivia is an outspoken conservative who has run for local office, managed campaigns, and been highly involved with state & local GOPs, state legislatures, and other grassroots organizations and movements. Olivia can be reached at olivia@tennesseeconservativenews.com.