Knox County, Tennessee, Mayor Glenn Jacobs told Flock Safety that a contract with the county sheriff was no longer valid, placing the future of over 140 cameras in doubt.
The former WWE star raised questions about the contract’s validity in an August 12 letter to Alex Guth, a regional sales director for Flock Safety. In the letter obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation, Jacobs said that the purchases and contracts exceeded the threshold that required review by elected officials.
“By our calculations, equipment and services purchased to date under the 2020 contract total $274,720, not including the $800,000 purchase made through Omnia,” Jacobs wrote. “Clearly then, the purchases made under this contract exceed the $100,000 threshold at which the contract must receive County Commission approval in order to be valid and legally binding.”
“Therefore, in my role as Chief Executive of the County, this is to inform you that I do not believe the 2020 contract between Knox County and your company is valid and there is no current service agreement in place,” Jacobs continued, adding that the letter was also serving as a notice that the county would not be renewing the contact.
Flock did not respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.
“The lack of transparency surrounding Flock’s rollout is one of the most troubling aspects about all this,” Jacobs posted Saturday on X. “It’s sure seems like there was a sprint towards a fait accompli before the public took notice.”
Jacobs told DCNF investigative reporter Emily Kopp in a video posted to YouTube August 5 that he initially thought Flock cameras were similar to other license plate readers.
“I thought they were license plate readers, right? The old drive by and the [camera] takes a picture of your [license plate] and if it’s on some sort of list, stolen car, Amber Alert, whatever, gets a hit, reports it to the police,” the former WWE star said. “What I discovered is these things are completely different than that. Instead of a passive system where, again, a car drives by and the other, they’re looking at the license plates, but they only report when they get a hit on something that the police are looking for, what these cameras do is these cameras are an active system that’s pulling data from every car that drives by. ”
“They take a snapshot, then it uses AI to not only store the data place, but also create what’s called a vehicular fingerprint, and that’s make model color of the car, distinguishing features such as roof racks, even bumper stickers,” Jacobs continued.
The cameras, which use artificial intelligence to automatically read license plates, have drawn controversy over privacy concerns, particularly those sited near gun stores and gun ranges. At least two establishments tied to the firearms industry have discontinued the use of Flock cameras initially purchased to enhance safety.
Social media posts noted a Flock camera outside Gun Commanders, a firearms dealer in Cleveland, Georgia, triggering a firestorm of protest. The store’s owner confirmed to the DCNF he had deactivated the camera.
“When I installed the system more than a year ago, my intentions were simple and sincere: to help protect my employees, my customers, and my business from theft and violent crime. Before making that decision, I took the time to understand how the system worked and the privacy safeguards that were in place, including extremely limited data retention,” Mike Carter told the DCNF in response to an earlier inquiry on the social media posts regarding the camera. “At no time was the camera installed to monitor, track, or infringe upon the rights or privacy of law-abiding gun owners.”
“After listening to our customers and considering the impact this controversy has had on our staff, our families, and our business, I have decided to remove the Flock camera from our property,” Carter added. “Effective immediately, the camera has been rendered inoperable and is no longer functioning. It is currently in the process of being permanently removed from our property.”
Eagle Sports Range, a range and federally licensed dealer operating in Cudahy, Wisconsin, also took its cameras down after installing them in 2023, according to WISN, a Milwaukee-area TV station.
(DCNF)