JCPD's Flock program: What to know, how Johnson City compares to peers

Over the past year, the Johnson City Police Department has embraced the use of Flock cameras citing their ability to help solve criminal investigations in seconds. Amid residents' growing privacy concerns about the technology, JCPD Deputy Chief Mike Adams along with Chief Eric Dougherty met with city officials to give an update on the city's Flock program on Aug. 20. Adams, who oversees the program explained what types of technology the department uses, what the technology can and can't do and how it's benefited criminal investigations. What types of Flock technology does Johnson City use? There are three main types of Flock products currently in use by the city: license plate readers or LPRs; pan, tilt and zoom cameras, or PTZs; and gunshot detectors. JCPD has 145 LPRs and 70 PTZ cameras currently installed across the city, according to Adams' presentation. The department also has two mobile security trailers, each equipped with two PTZ cameras and one panoramic video camera making for a total of 221 police-operated Flock cameras citywide. LPRs are motion activated cameras that record vehicle sightings at a specific place and time. They don't record continuous video footage and they also don't detect vehicle speeds. LPRs do, however, capture license plates and characteristics of every vehicle that passes and compares those license plates and images against local, state and national crime databases. When the LPR system finds a match in these databases, it sends a real-time alert to on-duty officers and investigators. Adams said officers can only access and receive alerts when they turn on their Flock Safety mobile app's "shift mode," which also begins tracking the officer's location. PTZ cameras record live video footage and do not record audio. They're a little larger than license plate readers and usually are connected to their power source by a bulkier, white arm. Adams said downtown, schools and city parks are where JCPD has prioritized putting PTZ cameras. "If a crime occurs and I go back and review the video footage, all I'm getting is a video of what happened," Adams said, in regard to the PTZ cameras' capabilities. JCPD also has gunshot detectors installed at various places across the city. Gunshot detectors are not cameras — they only record audio. They're about the size of a soda can and are often installed on the sides of electric and traffic poles. According to Flock, these systems don't continuously record live audio, but instead, "continuously analyze sounds in short rolling windows of about three seconds," and compare those sounds to qualifying events such as a gunshot, vehicle crash or tires screeching. If the system sensors are triggered, it will record, encrypt and save a short audio clip. In JCPD's case, if one of these detectors is triggered, on-duty officers are alerted immediately. Since installing its first Flock camera in March 2025, the Johnson City Police Department has recovered $305,000 in stolen property and Adams said the department has seen a significant decrease in downtown gun violence. JCPD also used the cameras to help determine who the driver was in a downtown crash that killed one in May. Concerns about use of Flock technology Connor Beske is one of many Johnson City residents who see public use of the technology as a violation of privacy. Beske is the man behind DeFlock Johnson City, a group aimed at educating others about the technology. The group's Facebook page has gained over 1,300 followers since starting in June. "It's technology that is allowing the government to pay for information about us that they would otherwise need a warrant to get," Beske said. Outside of Johnson City, reports of Flock cameras being used by law enforcement for unauthorized tracking and immigration continue to surface. During the meeting with commissioners, Adams assured that there has been no such misuse by JCPD officers so far, and if there ever were, it would be grounds for an officer's immediate termination. "We have not had any misuse of this since we've had it in place," Adams said. "I have told all of our officers, 'if I catch you misusing it, I would recommend termination.' We take it very seriously." But police in Johnson City, Beske explained, aren't necessarily the biggest concern. As part of the Flock network, law enforcement agencies across the country can access any agencies opted in to sharing. "All the camera footage, everything goes back to Flock servers. What happens over there? Who knows," Beske said. During his presentation, Adams said he's limited JCPD's status to only sharing with agencies within the state of Tennessee. He said he felt uncomfortable sharing with the entire agency network. Currently, Flock's PTZ cameras don't utilize facial recognition and don't identify people. The company's gunshot detectors also do not store continuous audio recordings. But Beske fears these features are just a software update away. "That can change at any moment," Beske said. "At any point, the whole 'it doesn't do facial recognition' thing — that can go away without anyone noticing. There's not going to be workers on polls upgrading anything. It's just going to be a switch that gets flipped in a server somewhere." How does Johnson City Flock usage compare to other departments? Johnson City is one of a handful of police departments in Tennessee that have established a public transparency webpage with Flock. JCPD has created its own, in-house transparency page that can be found at johnsoncitytn.org/services/police/safe_city_project. When comparing publicly available information on the number of Flock cameras operated by each city police department with city census data, Johnson City has one of the highest concentrations of Flock cameras per capita in the state. However, several major Tennessee cities, including Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville and Chattanooga, do not appear to have made public the number of Flock cameras their law enforcement departments have installed. Neighboring cities Kingsport and Bristol operate a much smaller number of cameras compared to Johnson City's 221. A spokesperson for the city of Kingsport confirmed Wednesday that Kingsport Police Department currently has 10 LPR cameras installed through its contract with Flock. While the city of Bristol, Tenn. does not have a subscription with Flock Safety, its police department owns and operates 17 Motorola LPR cameras, according to a spokesperson for the city. Asheville, N.C., a city comparable in size to Johnson City, had a total of 11 cameras through the contract before its council voted to end its contract with the company on Aug. 24, according to publicly available information. Washington County currently operates 15 Flock cameras, according to Sheriff Keith Sexton. Earlier in August, Sullivan County moved to suspend its sheriff's office's use of the technology. A video of Adams Aug. 20 presentation can be viewed by clicking the link here online at johnsoncitypress.com.