A community effort to promote transparency and protect our right to privacy.
📸 What Are Flock Cameras?
Flock Safety cameras automatically scan and record every passing license plate, creating vast databases of vehicle activity.
While marketed as a public-safety tool, these systems quietly enable mass surveillance, long-term tracking, and the sharing of residents’ travel data—often without public consent or oversight.
🏙️ Why It Matters in Maryville
Private-company AI surveillance cameras — sold under the name Flock Safety — have been installed throughout Maryville and Alcoa, including in quiet residential areas.
These systems use artificial intelligence to scan and record every passing vehicle, creating detailed, time-stamped logs of residents’ movements, even when no crime has occurred.
Managed by a private corporation rather than local citizens, they raise serious questions about oversight, accountability, and the long-term storage of community data.
“Privacy is not about hiding; it’s about the freedom to live without being constantly watched.”
đź§Â Background: How We Got Here
Over the past several years, police departments across the country have partnered with private companies like Flock Safety to deploy AI-driven license plate surveillance networks. These systems promise to help solve crimes faster by instantly identifying vehicles of interest.
In 2023 and 2024, Maryville and neighboring Alcoa quietly joined this trend, approving agreements that allowed Flock Safety to install cameras throughout the area.
While some were placed along major roads, others appeared in residential neighborhoods — often without broad public discussion or notification to nearby residents.The cameras continuously scan every passing vehicle, capturing license plate numbers, make, model, color, and the exact time and location of travel. This information is automatically uploaded to Flock’s cloud servers, where it can be shared among law enforcement agencies across Tennessee and beyond.
Local residents began noticing the new devices mounted on poles near intersections, schools, and neighborhood entrances. As questions grew about who controls the data, how long it is stored, and what safeguards exist against misuse, it became clear that Maryville needed a transparent, community-wide conversation about surveillance, privacy, and accountability.
🧾 Learn More
Documents & City Correspondence (coming soon)
Camera Location Map (coming soon)
Get Involved (contact & volunteer info)