Trenton Police Chief Defends Use of Flock Cameras Amid Community Concerns
The short version: A Trenton police chief's damage-control pitch to city council shows the standard Flock playbook: deploy first, promise 'policy fixes' once residents push back.
Our Take
WCPO 9's coverage of Trenton Police Chief Patrick Carr fielding council questions follows a pattern we see in city after city: the cameras go up, the public finds out later, and only then does the department start talking about 'policy changes' to win back trust. If the trust was already there, there wouldn't be anything to regain.
Notice what's not usually on the table in these council-room defenses — ripping the cameras out. The conversation gets steered toward tweaking retention windows or audit logs, while the core issue stays untouched: a private company's network is logging where Trenton residents drive, every day, regardless of whether they're suspected of anything. Policy promises are easy to make and easy to quietly roll back once the cameras stay up and the news crews leave.
Credit to WCPO 9 for putting a police chief on record defending this system in public, because that kind of accountability is rare. If you want to see whether Trenton's Flock cameras — or ones near you — are mapped, check our camera map, and if your city council is having this same conversation, our take-action page has tools to push back before the 'trust-building' becomes permanent infrastructure.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of WCPO 9, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.