Tennessee This Week: August 30
The short version: Knox County's mayor and a political panel debate Flock ALPR cameras on WATE's Tennessee This Week, showing the backlash has reached statehouse-level conversation.
Our Take
When a county mayor has to sit down for a local news segment specifically to address "ongoing controversy" over license plate cameras, that's a signal the public pushback is working. Credit to WATE 6 On Your Side for giving Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs airtime to answer for Flock Safety's presence in East Tennessee, and for bringing in a political panel to discuss whether state lawmakers might actually step in. That's the kind of local accountability journalism this issue needs more of.
What's notable here isn't just that Flock is controversial — we already knew that — it's that the controversy has climbed high enough to land on a sitting mayor's desk and into statehouse chatter. These systems get installed quietly, often without real public debate, and then local officials find themselves explaining after the fact why a private company's cameras are logging every car that passes through their community. Tennessee residents deserve to know who authorized this, what data is being shared, and with whom.
If you're in Knox County or anywhere else in Tennessee, check our camera map to see what's already tracking your drives, and use our take-action resources to push your own local officials for the same kind of answers Mayor Jacobs is now being asked to give.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of WATE 6 On Your Side, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.