Sullivan County commissioner says Flock Safety CEO should be publicly hanged

Our Take

Let's be clear: violent rhetoric aimed at a corporate executive doesn't advance the fight against mass surveillance — it hands Flock Safety and its allies an easy way to dismiss legitimate criticism as unhinged. Credit to WJHL for reporting the story, but the real news here isn't the shock quote, it's what provoked it: a local official apparently furious enough about license plate readers in his community to say something he almost certainly shouldn't have.

That anger is worth paying attention to, even if the delivery was reckless. Commissioners across the country are discovering, often after the contracts are signed, how little oversight exists once Flock cameras go up: no meaningful public input, opaque data-sharing agreements, and law enforcement access that can stretch far beyond the county line. When elected officials feel this blindsided, it's a symptom of how these deployments get pushed through with minimal transparency in the first place.

If you want to know whether ALPR cameras are already watching your street, check our camera map, and if you'd rather channel frustration into something that actually moves the needle, our take-action page has the tools for pushing back through public meetings, records requests, and local policy fights — not headline-grabbing threats.