Law enforcement agencies in Blount County operate a combined network of at least 45 Flock Safety cameras as of late 2025:

Agency	Active Cameras	Deployment Timeline
Blount County Sheriff’s Office	17	Proposed in 2020; reported active as of September 2025.
Maryville Police Department	16	Approved by City Council in July 2024. Active as of June 2025.
Alcoa Police Department	12	10 installed in October 2020; 2 added in FY 2021-2022.

These cameras are typically positioned at major city entry points, intersections, and near neighborhoods or retail corridors.

Usage and Capabilities

Flock Safety systems do not merely capture license plate numbers; they record comprehensive vehicle profiles and movement patterns.

• Data Captured: The AI algorithm logs the vehicle’s make, model, color, roof racks, body damage, bumper stickers, and exact GPS timestamp.
• Volume: Dashboards from the Maryville network show the system captures approximately 127,000 plates per day, totaling around 3.3 million scans over a 26-day period. The vast majority (~99%) belong to ordinary citizens not suspected of a crime.
• Retention and Access: By default, agencies in Tennessee hold this data for 30 days unless flagged for an active investigation. Through the Flock portal, this data is searchable and accessible by over 1,000 outside law enforcement agencies nationwide.
• Warrantless Operation: The system scans all passing traffic automatically. Officers do not need a warrant, probable cause, or supervisory approval to search a vehicle’s travel history in the database.

System Costs

Flock Safety operates on a subscription-as-a-service model rather than a one-time hardware purchase.

• Per-Unit Pricing: In fiscal year 2024, Flock raised its standard unit pricing to $3,000 per camera annually.
• Maryville’s Contract: The Maryville Police Department’s Year-1 cost for its 16 cameras was approximately $48,000.
• Long-Term Spending: Based on standard municipal contracts and 3–5% annual price escalations, a 16-camera network is projected to cost local taxpayers between $550,000 and $600,000 over a 10-year period.

Local News and Public Pushback

The rapid deployment of these systems in East Tennessee has sparked significant civic pushback and media scrutiny regarding privacy and government transparency.

• Maryville Residents for Privacy: A local citizen group actively audits the Flock rollout, maintaining an interactive public map of all known camera locations in Maryville and Alcoa. The organization routinely uses the Tennessee Public Records Act (TPRA) to publish internal emails, contracts, and usage logs.
• Misuse Precedents: Privacy advocates frequently point to a nearby 2025 case in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where a former police officer pleaded guilty to 18 counts of official misconduct for misusing the Flock ALPR system for personal reasons.
• Private-Public Integration: Concerns have been raised over city council members holding business interests in private retail locations (such as convenience stores) where commercial Flock cameras can be installed and networked directly into the police department’s feeds.
• Community Countermeasures: Residents opposed to the surveillance have launched a Change.org petition demanding the removal of cameras county-wide. Many have also adopted the “DeFlock” mobile app, which crowdsources camera locations and helps drivers route around ALPR hotspots.