City council approves controversial Flock deal; Wayne swears in new police chief
The short version: Huntington's city council green-lit a Flock ALPR contract despite pushback, another reminder that these deals often sail through with little public scrutiny.
Our Take
WCHS-TV's local news roundup buried a big story in the middle of a broadcast about a new police chief and the Mega Millions: Huntington City Council just approved a "controversial" Flock Safety camera deal. That word "controversial" is doing a lot of work, and we'd bet most residents still don't know their license plates are about to be logged, timestamped, and stored every time they drive through town.
This is the pattern we track constantly at DeFlock The USA. A city council meeting, a quick vote, a press release about "fighting crime," and suddenly a private company has a rolling database of everyone's movements with little debate about retention policies, who can access the data, or what happens when it's inevitably misused or breached. Credit to WCHS-TV for at least flagging the controversy rather than running a puff piece — most local coverage doesn't even go that far.
If you're in Huntington or anywhere else in West Virginia, now's the time to find out exactly where these cameras are going up and push your own council for transparency before the cameras go live, not after. Check our map to see what's already been deployed near you, and visit our take-action page for tools to push back on deals like this one.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of WCHS-TV, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.