Mayor Kane is about to Tombstone surveillance technology 💀🔥

Our Take

Credit to Memez Snack for surfacing this clip of Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs — yes, the former WWE Superstar Kane — speaking out against Flock Safety's ALPR network. When a sitting mayor, regardless of his wrestling past, starts questioning why a private surveillance company is quietly blanketing his county with license plate cameras, that's a signal the pushback against mass surveillance is reaching beyond the usual civil liberties circles and into mainstream local politics.

This matters because Flock's pitch to local governments has largely gone unchallenged for years: quiet council votes, vague 'public safety' framing, and little public debate about data retention, vendor access, or how these cameras track every vehicle's movement regardless of suspicion. A mayor publicly calling for a ban is exactly the kind of accountability moment that can shift a whole county's policy, and it shows other elected officials that saying no to blanket surveillance isn't politically risky — it can be popular.

We don't have the full transcript or the specifics of what ban language is being proposed, so we'll hold off on overclaiming what happens next in Knox County. But if you want to see how many of these cameras are already watching your own neighborhood, check out our camera map, and if you're ready to push back locally, our take-action resources can help you bring this fight to your own city council.