Mass Surveillance or Public Safety? "Mayor Kane" on the Danger of Flock Cameras

Our Take

It's telling when the pushback on Flock Safety comes not from the usual privacy advocates but from a former Republican county mayor on a Fox News podcast. Glenn Jacobs — known to wrestling fans as Kane — spent years inside Knox County government watching these camera networks expand, and his warning lines up with what we've documented for months: these systems quietly log every passing plate, building a searchable history of where you drive, when, and how often, all without a warrant or even most residents knowing the cameras exist.

That's the core problem with Flock's business model. It's marketed as a tool for solving specific crimes, but the infrastructure it creates is a permanent, retroactive surveillance record that police, and sometimes outside agencies, can query long after the fact. When a conservative former mayor and a left-leaning privacy advocate land on the same conclusion, that should tell lawmakers something about how far outside the normal left-right fight this issue has drifted.

We credit Fox News Podcasts for giving this story airtime outside the usual tech-policy bubble — the more people across the political spectrum hear it, the harder these systems become to quietly roll out unchallenged. If you want to see whether Flock has already shown up in your neighborhood, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back, our take-action resources walk you through what to say at your next city council meeting.