Maryville Residents for Privacy

The Flock Whitelist: How Maryville Created ‘Ghost Vehicles’ Above the ALPR System

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FLOCK SAFETY ALPR IN MARYVILLE, TENNESSEE

The Flock Whitelist: How Maryville Created "Ghost Vehicles" Above the ALPR System

Through a Tennessee Public Records Act (TPRA) request, MaryvillePrivacy.org obtained records showing a Flock "Safe List / Whitelist" in Maryville — a feature that marks selected plates as trusted and suppresses alerts. The City confirmed the listed plates were not police or city-owned vehicles, and that there are no written policies governing this decision.

This page provides: documented excerpts, the plate list, why "ghost vehicle" exemptions matter, and a copy/paste public-records request template you can use in your own community.
 Maryville Police Department emblem, Maryville Tennessee Used here for commentary and public-records documentation.
3
Non-City Plates
On Maryville's Flock Safe List
ZERO
Written Policies
Governing plate suppression (per City)
1
Approving Officer
Lt. Rod Fernandez — no oversight above
"Never"
Expiration Set
All three plates set to never expire
TL;DR for Maryville residents: Public records show the City of Maryville used Flock's "Safe List / Whitelist" to suppress alerts for three non-city license plates (5963, 635BGDX, BDY2035). In a later written response, the City stated there are no written policies for suppressing plates, and that Lt. Rod Fernandez approved suppressing the plates.
One-line reality check: A whitelist creates a two-tier ALPR system — some vehicles get "trusted" treatment while everyone else remains fully tracked.
SECTION 1 · Overview & Key Takeaways

👻 What "Ghost Vehicles" Means in an ALPR System

In Flock, a "Whitelist / Safe List / Exempt Vehicle List" can mark selected license plates as trusted. That typically means the plate can receive reduced alerting or suppression behavior inside the system, compared to ordinary residents' vehicles.

At a glance (Maryville public records)
  • The City identified three plates on the Safe List: 5963, 635BGDX, BDY2035.
  • The City confirmed those plates are not police or other city-owned vehicles.
  • The City later stated there are no written policies for suppressing plates, and Lt. Rod Fernandez approved the suppression.
  • All three plates were set to "Never" expire — no review or sunset date.
Also known as: Whitelist, Safelist, Exempt Vehicle List, Trusted Vehicle List, VIP List (informal), "Ghost Vehicle" list (informal).
SECTION 2 · What the City of Maryville Said in Writing

🧾 Key written statements (dates included)

The following excerpts and screenshots are reproduced from City email responses obtained through TPRA.

Safe List plates provided by the City
"There are only 3 plates … white-listed in our system, listed below: 5963  635BGDX  BDY2035"
Non-city ownership confirmation (as stated by the City)
Chief Tony Crisp confirmed these plates are "not police or other city owned vehicles."
Update (Dec. 12, 2025): no written policy + who approved suppression
Chief Tony Crisp confirms there are no written policies for suppressing vehicle license plates. As for the plates in question, Lt. Rod Fernandez approved the suppressing of these plates.
City of Maryville email excerpt stating there are no written policies for suppressing vehicle license plates, and that Lt. Rod Fernandez approved the suppression.
City email excerpt (Dec. 12, 2025): Chief Tony Crisp states there are no written policies for suppressing plates and that Lt. Rod Fernandez approved suppressing the listed plates.
TPRA screenshot showing Maryville's Flock Safe List with plates 5963, 635BGDX, and BDY2035 marked as never expiring, plus City statements that the plates are not city-owned.
TPRA screenshot: Maryville's Safe List showing 5963, 635BGDX, BDY2035, with "Expires" set to "Never," and City statements about ownership.
SECTION 3 · Whitelisted Plates Identified via TPRA

🧾 The three plates

The City identified the following plates as the Safe List entries, confirming these are not police or other city-owned vehicles. All three were set to never expire.

# License Plate Expiration What the City stated
1 5963 Never Not police or other city-owned vehicle.
2 635BGDX Never Not police or other city-owned vehicle.
3 BDY2035 Never Not police or other city-owned vehicle.

Note: Plate numbers reproduced exactly as provided by the City in response to a TPRA request. Approved by Lt. Rod Fernandez; no written policy governs this decision per the City's own statement.

SECTION 4 · What Is a Flock "Whitelist / Safe List"?

✅ The concept

A whitelist (also called a Safe List or Exempt Vehicle List) is a feature that marks a plate as trusted. In practice, that may mean:

  • Reduced automated alerts or notifications for that plate.
  • Different treatment inside the ALPR portal compared to ordinary residents' plates.
  • A practical ability for an agency to create "ghost-like" treatment for selected vehicles — without the public or oversight body knowing.
Maryville Privacy Assessment: If an agency can suppress alerts for selected plates without a written policy, that's a transparency and equal-treatment problem — regardless of whether the intent was benign.
SECTION 5 · Ghost Vehicle Diagrams

🧩 Visual: how "trusted" plates can bypass alerts

Infographic explaining how Maryville's Flock Safe List can create 'ghost vehicles' by suppressing alerts for selected license plates while the public remains fully scanned.
Reader-friendly diagram: a "Safe List / Whitelist" can suppress alerts for selected plates even while the wider public remains fully scanned and searchable.
Diagram showing how a normal vehicle triggers alerts while a whitelisted ghost vehicle bypasses alerts in the Flock ALPR network.
How a Ghost Vehicle Works: a normal vehicle triggers alerts while a whitelisted plate can bypass or suppress automated notifications.
 Graphic listing the three whitelisted license plates 5963, 635BGDX, and BDY2035 identified in Maryville's Flock Safe List.
Whitelisted Plates Identified via TPRA: 5963, 635BGDX, BDY2035.
SECTION 6 · Two-Tier Surveillance & Unanswered Questions

⚖️ A two-tier ALPR reality

  • Tier 1: Ordinary residents' vehicles — fully scanned, logged, and available for searches and alerts.
  • Tier 2: "Trusted" or suppressed plates — less likely to trigger automated attention, alerts, or follow-up.
Why Tier 2 exists is the unanswered question A two-tier system can be created for very different reasons, and without transparency the public cannot tell which explanation applies:
  • Benign administrative reasons (temporary suppression to reduce noise, special events, misreads, internal testing).
  • AI or data quality flaws (plate-only matching, state or plate-type context failures, misreads, collisions across states).
  • Favoritism or unequal treatment (VIP exceptions, "do-not-stop" behavior, selective suppression without standards).
This is not a claim about intent. It is the problem: no clear rules, no visible audit trail, and no way for the public to evaluate why exemptions exist.
Questions residents can reasonably ask city officials
  • What exactly does "suppressing" a plate do inside the Flock system — alerts, hotlists, notifications, officer-facing workflows?
  • What is the standard for adding a plate to the Safe List, and who has authority to approve it?
  • Is there an audit log showing when each plate was added, by whom, and what reason or case number was attached?
  • Are Safe List entries temporary by default, or can they be set to "Never" without review?
  • How often is the Safe List reviewed, and who verifies entries are still justified?
  • If the system shares data externally, does "trusted" status change how other agencies treat those plates?

Local context: Plate 5963 and the risk of false suspicion

Maryville public records show plate 5963 was placed on the Safe List even though the City later stated there is no written policy and no additional records to release beyond the Safe List screenshot. The City stated the plates were entered by a local officer.

Separately, HaveIBeenFlocked.com aggregates Flock "audit logs" released through public records. Those logs show how agencies search plates across the network and sometimes cite reasons like investigation+ or stolen license plate.

What this illustrates: When workflows are "plate-number first" and context is weak or inconsistently enforced, the same plate characters can point to the wrong vehicle across state lines. Without clear verification requirements, a "hit" can be treated like an answer instead of a lead.
Transparency note: HaveIBeenFlocked.com describes its dataset as incomplete and often redacted. It is useful for understanding patterns and scale, but it does not prove that any specific Maryville resident was stopped or that two identical plate numbers refer to the same vehicle.
Infographic showing how an out of state suspect plate search can create a false local suspect in Maryville due to plate-only matching and missing context.
Visual overview: how a plate-only hit can become false suspicion if treated like a conclusion instead of a lead that requires verification.

Maryville Privacy Assessment

Tier 2 plates can exist for multiple reasons, including benign administration, AI or data-quality flaws, or favoritism. The public problem is the same either way: without written standards, meaningful audit logs, and basic transparency, exemptions can quietly create unequal treatment and can also mask system errors. Plate 5963 appears to be a plausible example of how plate-only matching and imperfect context can generate false suspicion across states. A hit should be treated as a lead, not proof — and normal verification should never be replaced by software confidence.

SECTION 7 · How to Request Your City's Flock Whitelist

📬 Copy/paste public-records request template

Many states exempt scanned plate detections — but that is different from an agency's manually-entered exemption list. This template asks only for the whitelist/safelist configuration and related admin records.

"Pursuant to the [State Public Records Act], I request all documents, lists, exports, configuration records, or other records identifying license plates entered into the Flock Safety 'Whitelist', 'Safelist', 'Safe List', 'Exempt Vehicle List', 'Trusted Vehicles', or equivalent feature used by [Agency / City / Police Department].

This request does not seek ALPR detections, plate images, or scan history — only the manually entered exemption list and any records identifying the requesting/approving official(s) and any written policies governing whitelist use."

💡 Tip: ask the agency to confirm in writing if no responsive policy exists — that response itself becomes a public record documenting the oversight gap.

For Maryville/Tennessee residents: Submit via email to the Maryville City Recorder at cityrecorder@maryville-tn.gov. Reference the Tennessee Public Records Act (T.C.A. § 10-7-503). You are entitled to a response within 7 business days.
SECTION 8 · Q&A

❓ Common questions about Maryville's Flock whitelist

Are the three whitelisted plates official police cars?
The City stated the plates 5963, 635BGDX, and BDY2035 are not police or other city-owned vehicles.
Does being whitelisted mean a car is never tracked?
A plate can still appear in the system when it passes cameras, but a "trusted/suppressed" setting can change how alerts or automated attention applies to that plate compared to ordinary vehicles.
Can regular residents ask to have their plate whitelisted?
Typically, no. Whitelisting is controlled entirely by the agency operating the system. Ordinary residents have no mechanism to request this treatment.
What's the significance of "no written policies"?
If a system can suppress alerts for selected plates without a written policy, the public has no clear standard to evaluate whether exemptions are limited, justified, audited, or consistently applied. It also means there is no accountability mechanism if the feature is misused.
Why does it matter that expiration was set to "Never"?
An indefinite suppression with no review date means no one is prompted to revisit whether the exemption is still valid or appropriate. Combined with no written policy, it means these plates could remain "ghost vehicles" indefinitely with no oversight trigger.
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This page documents the Maryville, Tennessee Flock Safety whitelist (also called a Safe List, safelist, exempt vehicle list, or trusted vehicle list) obtained through Tennessee public-records requests. It summarizes City statements regarding three non-city plates placed on the list, the absence of a written suppression policy (as stated by the City), and why whitelist-style exemptions matter for accountability, equal treatment, auditability, and oversight in ALPR deployments.