Commissioners notified of Flock camera privacy issues

Security concerns with the four Flock cameras in Johnson County were presented to the county commissioners in December. On Dec. 18, Karen Miller, who has expertise in the field, spoke to the Johnson County Commissioners about their contract with Flock and asked them to consider terminating the deal. In June 2024, Johnson County and Mountain City approved the installation of four Flock cameras. These are on U.S. 421 S., U.S. 421 N., at the corner of Main Street and Church Street and the corner of Forge Creek Road and Cross Roads Drive. Flock cameras are mounted in certain locations to provide local law enforcement departments with additional visibility to solve cases through alerts when a vehicle on the Crime Information Center list or other lists drives past a camera. However, Flock has been accused of data misuse, including selling data to third parties and the federal government, according to an editorial Miller previously wrote for The Tomahawk. One of those third parties is Palantir, which Miller said is a data aggregator that resells that data forward. "The truth of the matter is that as long as a for-profit company possesses this kind of data, we're always going to have that kind of risk if they do whatever they like with it," Miller said. Miller said data collection from the Flock Cameras should not be for commercial purposes, per Johnson County's agreement with the Tennessee Department of Transportation. Miller suggested the privacy concerns could lead to Fourth Amendment issues if the data is used by someone who doesn't have a warrant. Alternative camera systems are available, Miller said, so the sheriff's office can accomplish its job while avoiding data privacy concerns. Board Chair Freddy Phipps said Flock cameras were sold to them as a system that can read car tags, detecting if a car was stolen or is involved in abduction cases. Johnson County Sheriff Clifton Worley said he is aware of the privacy data concerns. Worley said the Tennessee Sheriff's Association and other law enforcement agencies are investigating Flock cameras and deciding the next course of action. "As we get the information and collect it, I know the Tennessee Sheriff's Association and the National Sheriff's Association is trying to come up with a plan for everybody," Worley said. Worley said the cameras have helped them with some tasks, but they didn't know about the data privacy issues in 2024.