More Than 150 Towns Reject Flock Cameras

Flock Safety has pushed back on the idea that its network amounts to a surveillance state. CEO Garrett Langley told Newsweek in a mid-August video interview that the company's "end goal isn't a dystopian future of surveillance; it's one where we all feel safe."

The company told The Center Square in a July email that in 2025 it estimates its technology "supported more than one million public safety investigations, assisted in 20% of solved cases in jurisdictions that partner with Flock, and helped locate more than 10,000 missing people," adding that "rather than banning a critical public safety tool, Congress should consider strong, clear safeguards."

Massie framed his bill in blunt terms: "The federal government shouldn't provide 'security' grants to cities and police departments that have gone beyond the pale and turned their communities into a version of 1984."

Sheriff Garrett said the reason for his pause was straightforward. "The primary factor is the tremendous concern regarding public data and potential misuse of what is captured," he said in a statement posted on social media, noting his office oversees roughly 70 cameras across Hamilton County. He asked state and federal leaders to open a conversation about the technology.

In Michigan City, Mayor Angie Nelson Deuitch said residents "have every right to expect that these tools will be used lawfully, ethically and only for legitimate public-safety purposes. When that trust is violated, we have a responsibility to identify it, address it and be transparent with the public about what occurred." Police Chief Steven Forker said "misuse of law-enforcement technology will not be tolerated."

Police agencies are defending the readers. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said the technology "has helped the bureau and its partner agencies locate missing and endangered children and vulnerable adults, identify vehicles associated with wanted fugitives, and develop leads in investigations involving violent crime, drug trafficking, and organized criminal activity," and credited an out-of-state reader with helping find a 1-year-old child taken from Tennessee.

Christopher Ingraham of the Institute for Justice told The Center Square the harder question is whether those cases would have been cracked anyway. "We don't know," he said. "The thing that I get concerned about is our law enforcement agencies crediting a camera with the entire case when it's really just a small piece of a case."