Drew Cranmer to Wichita City Council: You Can’t Oversee What You Can’t See

Our Take

Kansas Helen's footage of Drew Cranmer addressing the Wichita City Council cuts to the core problem with Flock Safety deployments nationwide: departments buy the cameras, flip the switch, and then treat the resulting audit trail like a state secret. Cranmer's line — you can't oversee what you can't see — isn't a slogan, it's a diagnosis. If a city council can't get straight answers about who searched the plate database, how often, and why, then "oversight" is just a word painted on a press release.

This fight in Wichita is a local version of a pattern we've tracked across the country: police departments sign contracts with Flock, promise the usual talking points about stolen cars and Amber Alerts, and then slam the door on the audit logs that would actually show whether the system is being used as advertised or quietly repurposed for immigration sweeps, personal lookups, or data-sharing with agencies the public never agreed to. Sunflower Privacy Alliance pushing for transparency here matters well beyond Kansas — every city that caves to "trust us" instead of demanding real audit access makes it easier for the next department to do the same.

Credit to Kansas Helen for getting this exchange on camera and putting it in front of the people who actually vote on these contracts. If you want to see whether there's a Flock camera reading plates near you, check our camera map, and if you'd rather not wait for your own city council to stumble into this fight, our take-action resources walk you through how to start pushing for audit transparency now.