Public officials receive threats over Flock cameras

In the wake of the Macon County commissioners' decision to terminate a contract with Flock Safety, the Town of Franklin says threats were made toward public officials, primarily through social media. "The assistance of town citizens is requested in curbing this unacceptable trend, through the spread of better understanding and goodwill," Town Manager Amie Owens stated in a press release on July 21. Owens said the recent national and local news regarding Flock camera systems is driving some of the threatening speech. "The Town does not have any contract with Flock, or any similar ALPR [automatic license plate reader] camera system," she said. "The Town Council has not budgeted funds for any such system and administration has no plans to purchase anything of the sort now or in the future." Owens said social media users should be mindful that communicating threats can result in civil action and even criminal charges; public officers are covered by additional laws criminalizing threats made against them on account of their official duties. "Threatening anyone is just plain wrong, and we should expect better civility of people," said Vice Mayor Mike Lewis. "Particularly when threats are made against our neighbors who have made the decision to serve their community." Highlands Police Chief Andrea Holland said their department decided not to use Flock cameras following an exploration of the technology. "We looked into it," Holland said. "After doing our research, we decided that it wasn't right for the Town of Highlands at this time." Dereck Jones, chief deputy and public information officer with the Macon County Sheriff's Office, said the Sheriff's Office has not had access to the 12 Flock cameras it used since the county commissioners' vote on July 14. The department also does not have access to the four Macon County Schools cameras. The school cameras were paid for with a public safety grant that the school system received. The county's cameras are still in place as of July 27, and a spokesperson from Flock Safety said the cameras would be removed as a part of the company's standard "defined offboarding process," though did not specify when they should be removed. How officers used Flock cameras Jones said he regretted how some residents appeared to be misunderstanding how Flock license plate reader (LPR) cameras worked and how the department used them as part of its investigations. He said he hoped better public education could help residents better understand the technology and how it can be used to help people. According to an initial contract in 2023 with Flock Safety, the Sheriff's Office paid $31,950 for the company's operating system, three "Flock Safety Falcon" cameras, one "Flock Safety Falcon Flex" camera and an advanced search function. The Flex camera is identical to the standard Falcon camera, but can be set up at multiple locations. In 2026-27, MCSO was paying $47,000 for 12 cameras, which according to Jones were placed at various locations in Macon County. Three were on Murphy Road, three on Cashiers Road, two on Highlands Road, two on 441 North and two on 441 South. An additional four cameras were placed on behalf of the school system: two at the Wells Grove Road and Clarks Chapel Road roundabout, between Mountain View Intermediate and Macon Middle School, and two more at Cartoogechaye Elementary School. Jones said the department "never had 22 cameras," – a misconception shared at the July commissioners meeting. When a vehicle drives past a Flock LPR, the camera takes a shot of the vehicle and stores information about the vehicle for 30 days, including information on its tag, make, body type, color, decals and bumper stickers, racks, damage and other identifying information. The agreement between Flock and the Sheriff's Office said the company does not own and therefore cannot sell customer data, however it retains the ability to create "anonymized data" – altering raw data to render its subjects unidentifiable – to administer its services to customers and to train AI. Jones noted the office and its investigators cannot simply look through a live database of vehicle types, plate numbers and locations, nor can they look up a vehicle on a whim without cause. They must include information in each search about the reason they are looking and a general description of the vehicle they are looking for, such as for a missing person, abducted child or larceny. Jones said the department was constantly receiving and fielding tips and doing baseline investigative work before they even arrived at the Flock search input. After inputting the information, Flock will return a list of potential matches, which is narrower the more details on a vehicle the investigator has. The department can add a specific vehicle or search criteria to a hotlist, and each time a match is located by a Flock LPR, the investigator will be notified. Multiple vehicles can be added to a single hotlist in the event an investigation may be searching for multiple vehicles, and Jones said no other department or entity has access to the Macon County Sheriff's Office's hotlists. Jones stressed the hotlists and search options are a tool, used in conjunction with other investigative techniques by deputies to help them identify suspects and in some cases missing persons. He said the officers always do their due diligence to ensure they have the exact person they are looking for. In addition to safeguards implemented by Flock Safety to prevent abuse of its databases, Jones said Lieutenant Lee Tritt presided over the Flock system for the Sheriff's Office, examining investigators' searches to ensure they are compliant with department policy and are not abusing their authority. Tritt is a retired State Bureau of Investigation special agent, and the office placed him in charge of the Flock resource specifically because SBI oversees Flock at the state level. Jones said the department has a zero tolerance policy for abuses of the Flock system and recognizes other officers in other departments nationwide have abused their power through Flock. "There's bad apples in every profession, whether it's McDonald's, banks, law enforcement, wherever," he said. "But again, we stand strong on a zero tolerance policy and if somebody was to misuse it – and thank God we've not – we've got somebody sitting there looking at it and looking at it every day." Shelby Powell can be reached at reporter@thefranklinpress.com.

Public officials receive threats over Flock cameras

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