Lawmakers call for Flock camera rules amid public backlash

Our Take

Credit where it's due: WATE 6 On Your Side is documenting something we don't see enough of — elected officials actually reacting to public anger over Flock Safety cameras instead of rubber-stamping another vendor contract. When "significant pushback" from East Tennessee residents is enough to push state lawmakers back to the table, that's a signal other statehouses should be paying attention to.

This is the pattern we track across the country: a city council or sheriff's office quietly installs a network of license plate readers, residents eventually notice the cameras on every corner, and only then does anyone ask who's watching the data, how long it's kept, and which agencies get to query it without a warrant. Tennessee lawmakers talking about "rules" now is a start, but rules written after the fact tend to codify surveillance rather than rein it in. The real fight is over retention limits, audit trails, and hard restrictions on sharing plate data with ICE, bounty hunters, or out-of-state police fishing for abortion or immigration cases.

If you're in Tennessee or anywhere else, don't wait for your legislature to catch up — check our camera map to see what's already watching your streets, and use our take-action page to push your own city council for transparency before the next contract renewal.