Image Credit: Sullivan County Commission
Tennessee Conservative News [By Olivia Lupia] –
Things became heated during a Sullivan County Commission work session last week that was called to discuss the use of Flock cameras in the East Tennessee county when one commissioner told a Flock Safety representative that the company is one of the most hated in the nation and that its CEO should be considered treasonous.
The comments by Commissioner Joe Carr came after many questions were asked to the Flock representative about the use and function of the Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs) and discussion about a resolution introduced by Commissioner Gary Stidham stating the county will not renew its contract with Flock.
Stidham told local news of the resolution, “Right now we’ve got a technology that we put in place. We voted for, I sponsored the resolution, and we need to correct it. That technology is growing with AI; it’s going to get out of hand very quickly. And there are no safeguards in place. So the number one thing we need to do in the state General Assembly for this next year is putting guardrails.”
During the meeting the Flock representative attempted to ease commissioners’ worries, stating that the “Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office owns their data. They can control who accesses the data internally from their own users and can require or govern what other law enforcement agencies access their cameras.”
The Sheriff’s Office also issued a statement in support of ALPRs after the meeting, saying it has used “this advanced technology to help locate suspects and victims and enhance public safety.” The department also reiterated that the system only retains 30 days of stored data and believes “the safeguards currently in place within our agency provide clear guidelines for its use.”
But several commissioners remained skeptical, expressing concerns and asking more questions about data storage and privacy, ultimately leading Carr to say, “I believe that Flock right now is one of the most hated companies in America. They are one of the most corrupt companies in America. And, quite frankly, sir, I don’t think we can make America great again without hanging your CEO publicly for treason.”
Commission Chair John Gardner interrupted Carr, saying they were “not going to threaten violence to anybody,” but a video of the larger context of Carr’s statement showing discussion with the rep on topics like the use of AI and lack of warrants needed to access camera footage clarifies it was not a threat of violence, but an assessment on a legally dubious situation Americans are facing at a rapidly increasing rate.
As last week’s meeting served only as a work session, there was no formal action on the resolution, thought it will be taken up again at the regular commission meeting on August 20. But Carr’s comments highlight the continued rising anti-ALPR sentiment as questions about privacy rights and potential abuse remain the central focus of many discussions about the technology.
Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley recently said that the company is working to improve safeguards in response to the public pushback, including requiring Audit Assistance for law enforcement department searches to theoretically prevent abuse by individual officers and reducing its standard data retention policy from 30 days down to 7.
However, agencies will still be able to adjust their own retention period based on state or local policy and a new “evidence mode” feature will allow the agencies to preserve data longer than a retention policy allows if a search is tied to a specific safe case number.
Equally concerning is the option the company gives to local jurisdictions to limit how outside agencies can search data from their cameras, like allowing searches related to theft but not to immigration enforcement or abortion trafficking.
“As soon as you log in, in a state like California, this technology cannot be used for immigration enforcement- if it is, then it would be a violation of our contracts with our customers,” Langley said. He also stated that Flock cameras aren’t being used to track women crossing state lines for abortions.
There has also been evidence discovered that Flock Safety has shared license plate data without permission, causing one California town to end its entire ALPR network when it was discovered the system had been sharing city data with hundreds of law enforcement agencies, including federal, without authorization.
Two instances of this unsanctioned sharing included a “national lookup” setting that was supposedly switched on for one camera by Flock without informing the city and a separate “statewide lookup” feature which was found active on 29 of the city’s 30 cameras, running for 17 months until the city found and disabled it. Through that setting, over 250 agencies that had never signed a data agreement with the town reportedly ran approximately 600,000 searches over a single year.
Tennessee Congressman Tim Burchett has introduced federal legislation which would prohibit the use of federal funds for purchasing or deploying mass surveillance systems, including forbidding local, state, and tribal governments from using federal funds to facilitate the use of these kinds of cameras.
Several other Tennessee municipalities are also weighing the issue, debating whether to cut or renew contracts with Flock and similar providers, and Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs has joined other local leaders in expressing concerns about the technology and calling on the General Assembly to consider taking action against the systems when it reconvenes in January.
Sources:
https://twitter.com/flocksafety/status/2088339902903496915
https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/13/tech/flock-cameras-police-auditing-controls
https://twitter.com/WallStreetApes/status/2089336450185678972
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.
3 Responses
I share Commissioner Joe Carr’s opinion. We DON’T need or want Big Brother’s spy cameras.
Oh look, Politicians “grandstanding and back peddling.” Give me a break, they know it’s revenue for the government coffers.
The LPR’s are good for catching stolen cars. Many criminals steal a car before committing a crime. The only way to get away from surveillance is to go Off The Grid and live under evergreen trees. Satellites can see faces. Most stores have security cameras. Don’t get Ring. Cell phones and cars have GPS. I’m not going Off The Grid but I don’t want criminals roaming around my city in stolen cars looking for something to steal. The cities that have LPR’s will have less crime than those that don’t because criminals will avoid the cities that have LPRs. The Dem cities don’t want LPRs because they don’t want the police to catch criminals.