Tipsheet

WWE Star Turned Mayor Sounds the Alarm on Flock Safety Camera Surveillance

Jeff Charles
Jeff Charles  |  July 28, 2026 10:30 AM

Knox County, Tennessee, Mayor Glenn Jacobs is calling on Congress to pass legislation regulating the government's use of Flock Safety Cameras to surveil Americans.

Mayor Jacobs, better known as “Kane” during his years in the WWE as a professional wrestler, issued a statement on X on Monday. “Today, I am urging our Commission to prohibit the use of Flock cameras and similar devices in our County,” he said.

For those of you who don't know, these cameras, technically called Automated License Plate Readers, are motion activated and take a picture of every car which passes by. While License Plate Readers have been around for a while, because of AI and vastly increased networking and data retention capacities, these Flock cameras have capabilities not even imagined in the past.

Jacobs pointed out that “Older cameras only took a photo of your license plate, which was then retained for a short time.”

However, now the cameras take a photo of your place, but also use AI to catalogue distinguishing features of your vehicle: make, color, model, even bumper stickers,” Jacobs explained. “That data is stored in a searchable database for sometimes up to a month or more, depending on the policies of that particular agency. When these cameras are deployed in large numbers, they create a network that can be used to track your movements.”

Jacobs further pointed out that “there is no federal regulatory framework governing these devices in place, and the Tennessee laws regulating them were written over a decade ago” and that he fears that this might be “inadvertantly creating a warrantless mass surveillance system and undermining the privacy and Liberty of our people.” 

He concluded, “So I urge the Tennessee General Assembly and the United States Congress to look at this issue and take neccessary action to safeguard our privacy and civil liberties as these new technologies continue to emerge.”

Meanwhile, Congress is currently discussing the best ways to regulate law enforcement’s use of Flock Safety cameras to ensure they will not be used to violate Constitutional rights. Republican Rep. Thomas Massie (KY-4) announced plans to introduce a measure that would withhold federal money from municipalities and police departments that use the cameras. 

“I’ll soon be sponsoring a bill to withhold federal money from municipalities and police departments that deploy Flock (and other style) cameras to surveil law abiding citizens,” he wrote in a post on X.

Republican Rep. Tim Burchett (TN-2) introduced the Protection Against Mass Surveillance Act in July to prohibit federal agencies from purchasing, deploying, operating, accessing, or contracting for automated license plate recognition systems. It would also bar state and local governments from using federal funds for them. 

Reps. Keith Self (TX-3), Eli Crane (AZ-2) and Andrew Clyde (GA-9) also introduced the PRIVACY Act in July which requires federal law enforcement to obtain a warrant before accessing data from local systems like Flock cameras. “The PRIVACY Act provides critical protections to combat the federal government’s dangerous web of warrantless surveillance and data collection, including by devices like Flock cameras,” Clyde said.

Backlash against Flock Safety cameras has grown as privacy advocates and residents raise concerns about mass surveillance, data sharing with federal agencies and potential misuse. More than 50 municipalities have canceled or rejected Flock contracts amid worries over civil liberties. 

“This contract is not being renewed because of serious concerns around civil liberties and civil rights issues, particularly around privacy and the data that is being collected from these cameras,” said LAPD Chief Information Officer Dean Gialamas. 

According to TechTimes, 53 cities have terminated contracts over unauthorized federal data access, while the network has expanded past 100,000 cameras. At least 82 Flock contracts were canceled across 28 states between 2021 and May 2026, with 39 in the first five months of 2026 alone, driven by fears of warrantless tracking and incidents of officers misusing the system for personal reasons.