WSAZ Investigates | Huntington Mayor addresses Flock safety concerns
The short version: WSAZ NewsChannel 3 presses Huntington's mayor on Flock ALPR concerns, but a mayor's reassurances aren't the same as real oversight or proof the cameras are being used narrowly.
Our Take
Credit to WSAZ NewsChannel 3 for putting a mayor on the record about Flock Safety cameras in Huntington. That's the kind of local accountability reporting this issue needs — most city councils roll these systems out with a press release and a vendor demo, not a sit-down interview where officials actually have to answer for how the data gets used, stored, and shared.
But "addressing concerns" and "resolving concerns" are two very different things. Mayors and police chiefs almost always say the same things: it's for solving crime, it's not constant surveillance, there are policies in place. What rarely gets asked on camera is who can access the data, how long it's retained, whether it's shared with other agencies or federal databases, and what happens when the system gets it wrong — because ALPRs do get it wrong, and the consequences land on real people pulled over for nothing.
Huntington residents shouldn't have to take a mayor's word for it. Check our camera map to see what's actually been deployed near you, and if you want to push your own city council for real transparency instead of talking points, our take-action page has the tools to start that fight.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of WSAZ NewsChannel 3, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.