Privacy concerns prompt Collegedale commission to unanimously end Flock camera contract
The short version: A Tennessee commission's unanimous vote to dump its Flock Safety contract shows local officials can reverse course once they reckon with ALPR privacy risks.
Our Take
Credit to WTVC NewsChannel 9 for the quick hit on Collegedale, Tennessee, where city commissioners didn't just question their Flock Safety contract — they killed it, unanimously. That word "unanimously" matters. This wasn't a split vote forced by one privacy-minded holdout; it was a whole board deciding that a network of always-on license plate cameras wasn't worth the tradeoff once they actually looked at it.
These reversals are becoming a pattern worth watching: a town adopts Flock cameras promising stolen cars and safer streets, then someone starts asking who else can query the data, how long it's stored, and whether a federal agency or an out-of-state police department can run searches with zero local oversight. Once those questions land, the sales pitch about "community safety" starts looking a lot thinner. Collegedale joins a growing list of towns that got there before the cameras became permanent furniture.
If you want to know whether your own town has quietly signed up for this kind of tracking network, check our camera map, and if you'd rather not wait for your commission to catch up, our take-action page has the tools to push back now.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of WTVC NewsChannel 9, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.