Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs, a former World Wrestling Entertainment star known as Kane, has placed a $1 million deal to install hundreds of Flock Safety cameras on hold, citing concerns over potential Fourth Amendment violations. The decision pauses the local sheriff's plan to deploy 270 smart cameras across the county.
Jacobs stated his "troubled" by the capabilities of Flock cameras, which he believes enable "blanket surveillance" on law-abiding citizens. He referenced the Supreme Court's 2018 ruling in Carpenter v. United States, which requires warrants for police to access location data that reveals a person's movements over time. "The more that I've learned about Flock cameras, the more troubled I am," Jacobs told The Post. "It is not that we don't want law enforcement to have the tools they need to do their jobs — it's that there needs to be a pause until we have the regulations in place that protect the confines of the constitution."
The pause is set to remain in effect until new officials take office next month, according to the mayor. He expressed concern that the company lacks transparency regarding the full extent of the cameras' capabilities, suggesting they possess "capabilities not even imagined."
Flock Safety cameras are designed to track vehicles based on characteristics like dents and bumper stickers. The Atlanta-based company has become a significant surveillance tool for law enforcement agencies nationwide, with nearly 90,000 cameras reportedly installed across more than 5,000 police departments since 2018. However, the technology has drawn criticism, with some labeling it a "Big Brother"-style mass surveillance system. Concerns have been amplified by documented instances of data misuse; in a recent case, 18 Georgia officers were arrested for allegedly misusing Flock data, including a supervisor who reportedly used the system to track her boyfriend.
The growing debate over such surveillance technology has prompted legislative action. Representative Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) has introduced a bill that would strip federal funding from local governments or police departments that deploy these cameras. The controversy has also led to protests and vandalism targeting Flock camera infrastructure in various locations across the country, including incidents in California, Long Island, and upstate New York in the past month.