Maryville and Alcoa now operate a network of Flock Safety automated license plate cameras that record the movements of ordinary drivers every time they enter or leave neighborhoods, churches, schools, and local roads. Public records, city emails, and Flock’s own dashboards show millions of scans per month and data visibility for thousands of outside law enforcement agencies nationwide, creating a significant security and privacy exposure for local residents. This page summarizes what the system actually collects, how widely it is shared, and what the community can ask city leaders to review, disclose, or change.
This system enables warrantless, suspicionless location tracking at scale (a Fourth Amendment issue), and the city pays a private vendor subscription fees for access to the database and analytics.
Flock Safety Cameras & ALPR Surveillance in Maryville, Tennessee
Public records research on Flock Safety automated license plate readers (ALPR), proposed AI drone programs, and a hidden Flock whitelist “ghost vehicle” system affecting drivers in Maryville, Alcoa, and Blount County, Tennessee.
📘 Overview: What Flock Cameras Really Do in Maryville, Tennessee
MaryvillePrivacy.org documents the real world impact of Flock Safety’s automated license plate surveillance system in Maryville, Alcoa, and Blount County, Tennessee. Unlike the vendor’s marketing summary, this research is based entirely on public records, TPRA emails, Flock training materials, analytics screenshots, and the City of Maryville’s own documents.
While the police and vendor claim the system “captures evidence without compromising privacy,” the records show a very different picture:
- Flock scans every resident, visitor, churchgoer, and commuter with no warrant or suspicion.
- Analytics dashboards show tens of millions of vehicle scans per year, nearly all involving ordinary, law abiding citizens.
- Flock’s portal shows Maryville shares data with 1,000+ agencies nationwide, despite a police memo stating “no formal agreement.”
- The City added only three vehicles to a hidden Flock Safe List, creating ghost vehicles exempt from alerts.
- Axon Fleet 3 police cruiser cameras feed their video hits directly into the Flock cloud database.
- Cameras were placed on neighborhood entrances, church roads, schools, and residential streets with no public notice or hearing.
Flock calls this system “objective evidence.” Residents call it broad, suspicionless vehicle surveillance.
MaryvillePrivacy.org exists because this information was never clearly presented to residents. This site provides:
- A complete camera map
- Public records, emails, and portal screenshots
- Flock training showing officers use travel history and convoy patterns for stops (“guilt by travel”)
- Drone program records and cost estimates ($300,000 to $600,000 per year)
- Analysis of local ALPR policies, omissions, and contradictions
🆚 Flock’s Claims vs. What Public Records Show in Maryville
| Flock’s Public Claims | What City Documents Reveal |
|---|---|
| “Objective evidence without compromising privacy.” | Flock dashboards show 40 to 50+ million scans per year, overwhelmingly of ordinary civilians, not suspects. |
| “Retroactive search only to solve crimes.” | Training materials teach officers to use travel history and convoy patterns as grounds for traffic stops. |
| “Just a safety camera system.” | A subscription platform plus analytics pipeline that scales far beyond crime specific investigations. |
| “Proper guardrails are in place.” | Maryville provides no complete ALPR governance policy. Police memos contradict the system’s true scope and data sharing. |
| “Data is shared responsibly.” | Flock’s own portal shows Maryville shares with 1,000+ agencies, despite a memo stating “no agreement.” |
| “Transparency portal ensures openness.” | There was no public hearing or notice before placing cameras at neighborhood and church entrances. |
| “System is applied evenly.” | Maryville created a three vehicle whitelist (“ghost vehicles”) exempting select plates from alerts. |
| “Only Flock cameras feed the system.” | TPRA images show Axon Fleet 3 cruiser cameras feeding hits into Flock’s cloud based search interface. |
💰 How and Where Flock Sells Your Data
Flock markets itself as a “public safety” tool, but the system operates as a paid data platform:
cameras capture images plus metadata, data is uploaded to a private cloud dashboard, and access to that database (and its analytics) is sold through subscriptions.
What’s documented in Maryville and Alcoa
- Public infrastructure and public right of way siting: cameras are installed on poles and roadside locations that exist because taxpayers fund and maintain the broader public infrastructure.
- Law enforcement access: the city pays for platform access that includes search, alerts, and travel history style lookups (as reflected in the portal, dashboards, and training screenshots published on this site).
- Analytics about the driving population: dashboard views show aggregate breakdowns across the city, not just “suspect vehicles.”
What we’re actively investigating
- Private network expansion: community observations indicate Flock cameras operating in private retail lots and HOA settings, which can create a public private surveillance web.
- Access requests to private cameras: collecting and publishing records showing when and how local agencies request access to private lot systems.
- “Not personal data” language: reviewing contracts and terms for how “anonymized or aggregated” data is defined and what rights the vendor keeps.
Why this matters for taxpayers: when cameras are placed in public space, residents can reasonably ask why a private vendor is allowed to leverage public siting while the city also pays ongoing subscription costs for access to the resulting database and analytics. This is why transparency on contracts, retention, sharing rules, and audit logs matters.
🔎 Latest Public Records Findings
- Flock training shows traffic stops based solely on location history
Training materials show officers taught to use travel history and “convoy” patterns as grounds for stops, what we call “guilt by travel.” - New Flock AI drone program proposal in Maryville, Tennessee (300k to 600k per year)
Flock pitched a drone as first responder system over Maryville, Alcoa, and Blount County with projected costs up to $600,000 per year. - Maryville’s Flock whitelist: three “ghost vehicles” above the ALPR system
New TPRA records show the City of Maryville added just three license plates to a hidden Flock “Safe List”, creating ghost vehicles that bypass many automated alerts.
Maryville Flock Safety Cameras – Data Sharing, Policies, and Public Transparency
According to the official Flock Safety Transparency Portal for Maryville, TN Police Department, the city currently operates 16 Flock Safety automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras with 30 day data retention. In one recent 30 day window, the system recorded 310,458 license plates in and around Maryville, Tennessee.
Flock’s own portal states that Maryville Police Department uses this system for retroactive search and real time alerts, and that “data is used for law enforcement purposes only” with access logs “stored indefinitely.” The portal also confirms that Flock detects license plates and vehicles, not faces, but the system still creates a detailed pattern of life record of when and where ordinary drivers move around Maryville and Alcoa, Tennessee.
Most importantly for local residents, the same transparency page lists hundreds of outside agencies across the United States, including federal agencies, out of state police departments, task forces, and campus police, that are granted access to Maryville TN PD Flock data. In practice, that means vehicle scans collected in Maryville, Tennessee can be searched far beyond Blount County, even though those drivers may have done nothing wrong.
You can view the official vendor page here:
Flock Safety – Maryville TN PD Transparency Portal.
This site, MaryvillePrivacy.org, exists to independently document what that system means for civil liberties, data sharing, and community oversight in Maryville, Tennessee.
Police vs Flock claims
In response to a Tennessee Public Records Act (TPRA) request asking for any agreements or communications about sharing Flock Safety data with state or federal agencies, the Maryville Police Department’s written memo answered: “Not applicable (no formal agreement).”
At the same time, the Flock Safety Transparency Portal for Maryville TN PD lists hundreds of outside organizations that can access Maryville’s ALPR data, including out of state police departments, federal agencies, drug task forces, and other government entities that have been granted cross jurisdictional access inside the Flock network.
Taken together, these two facts raise serious questions:
- How can Maryville claim there is “no formal agreement” while its data appears inside a national Flock sharing network?
- Who decides which outside agencies may query Maryville Flock data, and under what rules?
- Are Maryville residents’ travel records being searched by agencies that do not answer to local voters?
MaryvillePrivacy.org uses public records and the vendor’s own transparency tools to document this gap between official assurances and actual data flows. Residents deserve clear, written policies on: data retention, inter agency sharing, audit logs, and limits on how long their movements can be tracked.
🚨 New Records: Flock Drone as First Responder Proposal in Maryville, Tennessee
Newly released public records show that Flock Safety pitched a countywide drone as first responder program, a major expansion of local surveillance across Maryville, Tennessee, Alcoa, Tennessee, and Blount County, Tennessee.
- Planning calls already held with the Blount County Sheriff’s Office, Maryville Police Department, Alcoa Police Department, and the regional 911 center in Tennessee.
- Flock would manage all FAA waivers and supply a full time (40 hrs per week) drone pilot.
- Projected annual cost: $300,000 to $600,000 per year for the East Tennessee region.
- Intended coverage includes schools, neighborhoods, major roads, and residential areas in Maryville, Alcoa, and surrounding Blount County communities.
Flock also pitched a fixed wing surveillance drone capable of long range countywide flights, reaching Friendsville, Louisville, Rockford, Eagleton, rural Blount County, Tennessee, and outlying communities.
This would dramatically expand the region’s aerial surveillance perimeter.
📄 Quick Access to Drone Records (Tennessee)
Before the maps: remember what this is
These tools exist because this is a paid private surveillance platform. Cameras capture data in public space, and government pays subscription fees to search and analyze the resulting database.
See the business model section.
JavaScript is disabled. View the national ALPR map directly here:
DeFlock National Map.
📍 Maryville, Tennessee Flock Camera Map
This interactive map highlights known and observed Flock Safety surveillance camera locations throughout Maryville, Tennessee and nearby Alcoa in Blount County, Tennessee. Updated periodically to support public transparency and informed community discussion.
💡 Your email app will open automatically. Thank you for helping keep the map accurate. Maintained by
MaryvillePrivacy.org
📱 DeFlock App – Report Cameras & Plan Camera Avoiding Routes
The DeFlock web app makes it easy to discover and report automatic license plate readers in your community and now offers route mapping to help you avoid known Flock and other surveillance cameras whenever possible.
- Quickly add new ALPR camera sightings to the national map.
- See plate reader hotspots before you drive through Maryville or East Tennessee.
- Generate suggested routes that try to minimize camera hits along the way.
DeFlock is an independent project. It gives residents practical tools to understand and reduce ALPR and Flock camera surveillance in their daily routes.
🚓 How Police Cruiser Cameras Feed Flock’s Database
This screenshot comes from the same Flock Safety portal used by Maryville Police.
On the left side, under External Sources, it shows an option labeled Axon Fleet 3, a police cruiser camera system, alongside the regular Flock Cameras list.
In this example, an officer has searched for a specific license plate and Flock returns two hits: one from a city roadside camera and one from an Axon Fleet 3 patrol vehicle. Both images appear side by side inside the same Flock interface, with timestamps and locations.
What this screen quietly shows
- Police collected images are being sent into Flock’s cloud. Axon Fleet 3 is not a pole mounted Flock camera. It is an in car police camera system.
- Flock becomes a hub for multiple surveillance feeds, not just its own cameras, expanding the size and detail of the database on everyday drivers.
- Officers can run a plate and see results from both city cameras and cruiser cameras in one place, with export and sharing options.
No warrant. No suspicion. No opt out.
This search screen is not limited to people accused of crimes. It shows how the platform is designed to let police type in a plate and instantly pull up where and when that car was seen across fixed cameras and cruiser cameras inside one private dashboard.
📊 What Flock Really Tracks in Maryville, Tennessee
This local Flock Safety dashboard from Maryville, Tennessee covers a 26 day period from October 18 to November 12, 2024.
It does not show crimes, suspects, or investigations.
Instead, it shows how the system monitors the entire driving population, every resident, every visitor, every family, every churchgoer, every commuter, with no warrant, no suspicion, and no opt out mechanism.
In less than one month, the dashboard reports extremely high volumes of surveillance:
- Millions of total scans across Maryville’s Flock camera network in just 26 days.
- Hundreds of thousands of scans per camera at some locations.
- Breakdowns of ordinary civilian vehicles by state, make, model, and type.
According to the dashboard, this view appears to include data from 12 of the 16 known Flock cameras in Maryville.
Even using cautious estimates, that 26 day sample extrapolates to roughly 40 to 50+ million vehicle scans per year when all cameras are included. Nearly all of this surveillance falls on ordinary residents who are not accused of wrongdoing.
None of this activity is tied to warrants or individualized suspicion. It is behavioral analytics on everyday movement, when people leave home, which schools and churches they visit, which stores they frequent, which roads they use most, and what times they travel.
This is pattern of life surveillance, not targeted crime investigation.
The dashboard shows the overwhelming majority of Flock data is about regular citizens, not criminals.
The 12 camera locations represented in this dashboard snapshot
Based on the City of Maryville’s electric department authorizations, installation letters, and observed camera poles, the dashboard likely includes data from these 12 neighborhood and arterial cameras:
- Grandview Dr & Tuckaleechee Pike – residential plus commuter traffic.
- Grandview Dr near Grandview Baptist Church – captures church and surrounding driveways.
- Foothills Mall Dr (multiple approaches) – retail, medical, school area movements.
- US 129 / Alcoa Hwy corridor – high volume regional travel.
- W Lamar Alexander Pkwy – commercial plus school traffic.
- S Washington St – downtown feeder and neighborhood connector.
- W Broadway Ave corridor – business district and residential flow.
- Sevierville Rd – east side commuter traffic.
- Wilkinson Pike – hospital, clinic, and residential movements.
- Coulter Grove area – school adjacent daily patterns.
- Montvale Rd – church, neighborhood, and school zone traffic.
- Foch St / Downtown grid – ordinary local circulation.
These are not special law enforcement zones or criminal hotspots.
They are everyday civilian locations, homes, churches, schools, stores, and commuter roads used by families and workers. The data produced from these cameras reflects the movements of the entire community, not just law enforcement targets.
📸 What Are Flock Cameras in Maryville, Tennessee?
- Every vehicle in Maryville and Alcoa, Tennessee is scanned by private company AI cameras known as Flock Safety ALPRs. They don’t just capture license plates, they track patterns of life for each driver:
- Where you go, when you leave home, when you visit work, school, church, or the doctor.
- All of this information is stored in massive databases, searchable by government and police agencies across Tennessee and the rest of the country.
- No warrants. No notice. No way to opt out.
- What began as a crime tool has evolved into a system that extensively tracks the movement of ordinary residents.
🏙️ Why It Matters in Maryville, Tennessee
- Neighborhood placement: Cameras are not just on highways, they’re on quiet residential streets in Maryville and Alcoa, Tennessee.
- Routine tracking: Everyone’s travel patterns can be logged, even when no crime occurred.
- Private control: A corporation hosts and handles the data, raising oversight and retention questions for Tennessee residents.
Community concern: This camera’s field of view may collect vehicle data for residents’ homes and places of worship without individualized suspicion or consent, highlighting the need for transparency and placement oversight in East Tennessee.
“Privacy is not about hiding; it’s about the freedom to live without being constantly watched.”
🧭 Background: How Flock Cameras Came to Maryville, Tennessee
Open summary (Maryville/Alcoa adoption, data details, timeline)
Over recent years, departments across the U.S. partnered with private vendors like Flock Safety to deploy AI driven ALPR networks. In 2023 to 2024, Maryville, Tennessee and neighboring Alcoa, Tennessee joined this trend. Cameras appear along major roads and in neighborhoods, often without broad public discussion.
The systems capture plate number, make, model, color, and exact time and location. Data is uploaded to the vendor’s cloud and can be shared with other agencies. Residents raised questions about who controls the data, how long it’s stored, and what guardrails exist.
⚖️ National Perspective: The Institute for Justice
Open summary (IJ’s work on ALPRs)
The Institute for Justice (IJ) is a nonprofit public interest law firm challenging mass vehicle surveillance and defending the right to move freely.
- Plate Privacy Project – IJ’s nationwide initiative.
- Norfolk, VA lawsuit – challenge to warrantless monitoring.
- Greers Ferry, AR letter – urging removal near homes.
IJ is engaging with residents in Maryville, Tennessee to promote transparency, accountability, and constitutional protections. More at ij.org.
📬 Community Letter to City Leaders in Maryville, Tennessee
On October 2025, a resident letter was submitted to the City of Maryville, Tennessee requesting transparency and limits on Flock Safety’s privately operated, AI driven license plate surveillance network. We’re sharing the key points so neighbors can raise similar concerns.
- Public process: schedule an open meeting to explain where cameras are, why they’re needed, and how results are measured.
- Publish policies: data retention period, who can access data, inter agency sharing rules, and audit logs.
- Residential safeguards: pause or remove cameras on neighborhood streets pending community input and clear necessity.
- Signage and notice: visible signs where cameras operate and advance public notice for any expansion.
- Independent review: annual privacy impact report and effectiveness audit available to the public.
- Sunset clause: end or renew only with demonstrated, publicly reported benefits and strict privacy protections.
Suggested lines you can copy (no personal info)
• I support public safety and privacy. Please hold a public meeting on Flock cameras in Maryville, Tennessee and publish the data use policy (retention, access, and sharing).
• Pause cameras on residential streets until residents can weigh in and clear, measured benefits are shown.
• Post visible signage and provide annual public audits, including access logs and retention timelines.
🧾 Maryville City officials recorded in the Flock ALPR / camera approval (July 2, 2024)
According to the official July 2, 2024 City of Maryville Council minutes and meeting packet, the City Council unanimously adopted a resolution titled “A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE INSTALLATION OF LPR/CAMERAS IN MARYVILLE, TN FOR THE PURPOSE OF PUBLIC SAFETY.”
The following officials are listed in the public record in connection with that resolution and related implementation:
- Andy White – Mayor. Presided over the July 2, 2024 meeting and declared the LPR/camera resolution adopted after a unanimous roll call vote.
- Fred Metz – Councilmember / Vice Mayor. Made the motion to adopt the LPR/camera resolution. The minutes record a unanimous vote in favor.
- Tommy Hunt – Councilmember. Seconded the motion to adopt the LPR/camera resolution. The minutes record a unanimous vote in favor.
- Drew Miles – Councilmember. Present at the July 2, 2024 meeting and part of the City Council that voted unanimously to adopt the LPR/camera resolution.
- Sarah Herron – Councilmember. Listed in the minutes as absent from the July 2, 2024 meeting and therefore did not participate in the LPR/camera vote.
- Greg McClain – City Manager. Listed as present at the July 2, 2024 Council meeting in which the LPR/camera resolution was adopted.
- Sherri Phillips – City Recorder. Listed as present in the minutes and identified in the resolution text as the official authorized to transmit a certified copy of the LPR/camera resolution to the Tennessee Department of Transportation.
- Melanie Davis – City Attorney. Listed as present in the minutes. The resolution form includes an “Approved as to form” signature line for the City Attorney.
- Tony Jay Crisp – Chief of Police / Director of Public Safety. Public records and the agenda background state that the City of Maryville Police Department has “for numerous years operated LPR/Cameras,” and Flock related correspondence is addressed to or from his office regarding meetings and implementation details.
- Lt. Rod M. Fernandez – Maryville Police Department. Email correspondence shows he served as a primary point of contact with Flock Safety, including arranging a March 20, 2024 meeting with a Flock representative and drafting a May 31, 2024 letter to the Electric Department to secure permission needed for Flock camera installation.
Source: City of Maryville City Council Meeting Minutes, July 2, 2024, agenda background materials, and email records produced through the Tennessee Public Records Act.
📬 Contact City Officials in Maryville, Tennessee
Ask for a public review of neighborhood cameras and clear limits on data use and retention in Maryville, Tennessee.
400 W. Broadway Ave., Maryville, TN 37801
🌐 Online Form: Use the City’s official contact page
📞 Phone: (865) 273-3401
💌 Email: mayorandcouncil@maryville-tn.gov
🧾 Learn More About Flock AI in Tennessee
Documents & City Letters (Maryville, Tennessee)
Flock ALPR Camera Location Map – Maryville, Tennessee
AI in Flock’s Patent: What’s Really Hidden Behind the Lens
Flock Safety’s own U.S. Patent No. 11,416,545 describes a system capable of identifying not only cars, but people by race, gender, clothing, height, and weight, all linked with time and location.
These are not ordinary license plate readers. They’re advanced systems incorporating advanced AI capabilities that can impact residents in Tennessee communities like Maryville and Alcoa.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions About Flock Cameras in Maryville, Tennessee
Do Flock cameras in Maryville require a warrant?
No. Public records show Maryville Police run Flock searches with no warrant and no individualized suspicion. Every resident and visitor is scanned automatically.
How much data do Flock cameras collect in Maryville?
Flock dashboards show an estimated 40 to 50+ million vehicle scans per year, overwhelmingly of ordinary law abiding citizens.
Does Maryville share Flock data with other agencies?
Yes. Flock’s portal lists 1,000+ agencies that can access Maryville’s ALPR data, contradicting a police memo claiming “no formal agreement.”
Are police cruiser cameras feeding images into Flock?
Yes. TPRA screenshots show Axon Fleet 3 cruiser cameras appear inside the Flock interface as External Sources.
Does Maryville have a Flock whitelist or Safe List?
Yes. The City added three plates to a hidden Safe List, creating ghost vehicles exempt from many automated alerts.
Does the City have written policies for suppressing (whitelisting) plates?
According to a City email dated December 12, 2025, Chief Tony Crisp confirmed there are no written policies for suppressing vehicle license plates, and the City stated that Lt. Rod Fernandez approved suppressing the plates referenced in the records request.
Were residents notified before the cameras were installed?
Public records show no public notice, hearing, or meaningful public discussion before cameras were placed at neighborhood and church entrances.
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