Image credit: Map of Data Points Shared Out of Mt. Juliet, TN.
Flock cameras are on the forefront of every freedom fighting mind in Tennessee, and across the country for that matter. Did you know our General Assembly had a bill presented to them in February, 2026 that would have prevented this level of surveillance from happening here in our state?
The “Protecting Everyone from Excessive Police Surveillance (PEEPS) Act”, or HB2608/SB2215, was a bill sponsored by Representative Hulsey and Senator Walley. In it, the bill states:
“The general assembly finds that government officials or entities violate the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution when, without adequate safeguards, such officials and entities create or access databases that reveal or contain information that can be used to reveal an individual’s or vehicle’s historical locations.”
It goes on to specify that “A government official shall not access a database that reveals historical location data unless:
- The government official obtains a search warrant…
- The defendant in a criminal case requests that the government preserve the defendant’s historical location data…
- All individuals whose historical location data would be revealed give the government official informed and express consent…
- The registered owner of a vehicle reports the vehicle lost or stolen, and gives the government official informed and express consent for the government official to access the vehicle’s location data in a specific database;
- Exigent circumstances exist at the time of access, including a call for emergency services or during an emergency situation…
- The government official uses the historical location data solely for the following purposes:
- Toll collection and enforcement
- Traffic enforcement
- Parking enforcement, or
- Information security as necessary to implement the requirements of the maintenance of historical location data (which is defined later in the bill).”
The bill sponsors also made sure to include language which would require all data to not be sold or conveyed to any “private, non-governmental third party” for any reason.
Unfortunately, this bill did not make it past the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee or the Senate Judiciary Committee. The House Criminal Justice Subcommittee is made up entirely of Republicans. The Senate Judiciary Committee is made up of 9 Republicans and 2 Democrats.
Flock Cameras are being set up all across the country under the assurance that they will be used by our local police departments to identify those who are breaking the law. Although mostly located on highways and along well-traveled streets, many stores such as Academy and Home Depot are installing them to help identify criminals.
At first glance, and for anyone who doesn’t remember the surveillance state we lived under in 2020, ensuring public safety and using tax dollars to do so may not seem threatening.
But the reality is, we did live under a surveillance state where tax dollars were used to enforce anti-liberty protocols and where, if cameras were set up and could track the movement of those who were breaking those protocols would have been used to hold people accountable to the government’s mandates.
Flock Cameras are cameras designed to capture the make, model, color of a car, the license plate, and any stickers or identifying information.
The data is taken and stored in a cloud database. Anyone with a paying subscription can have access to the data they track. Whether it’s the US Government, Marion County Sheriff’s Office or a Homeowner’s Association, you will be able to see every single car that drives by.
The information is not public, there is no public database of who is tracking the data. As a tax-paying citizen of Tennessee who drives to work everyday, takes their kids to practice after school, makes a weekly grocery run, your every move is recorded and saved as a data point, but you don’t have access to it.
Just across the Tennessee border, within the last few months, 10 members of law enforcement in Georgia have been arrested for mis-using the data they have access to.
Not only do government employees and those who work for private organizations, like Home Depot, have access to this data, local sheriff’s offices share all of their data nationwide. No warrant is needed, no “consent of the governed” to have your personal details shared across the state lines; our freedom to travel privately is a thing of the past.
DeFlock is a movement of citizens who are aiming to push back.
From their website, you can see a nationwide map of all the flock cameras citizens have reported. The map allows you to put in your travel information, and it will give you a map of how to travel in order to avoid being tracked.
Another valuable resource the DeFlock map provides is the ability to see who each agency is sharing their data with. If you look at Maryville’s Police Department, they have 16 cameras. They mutually share their data with 31 other police departments, from Blairsville, Georgia, to Huron, Ohio, to Chicago, Illinois.
They send our data to 2,038 agencies, spanning from east to west coast.
They receive other’s data from 10 agencies, covering North Carolina, South Carolina, Michigan and Ohio.
According to their Flock portal, they have read 387,329 unique license plates over the last 30 days.
This is one police department in the state of Tennessee. Several counties have not set up flock cameras yet, but these have: Hamilton, Shelby, Davidson, Knox, Blount, Washington, Sumner, Rutherford, Wilson, Madison, Decatur, Anderson, Chester and Hamblen.
The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution states, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
What do we do in Tennessee when our Law of the Land is not protected? There are some that will take this into their own hands, as many in the DeFlock organization are doing. For others, this is why we must elect men and women who will stand against a surveillance state and honor the rights protected in our Constitution. We had a handful of representatives attempt to do so this year, but Republicans blocked them from moving forward.
Before you make your vote, be sure to do your research on where the candidates stand in regards to honoring our Constitution, our privacy depends on it.
Resources:
https://www.flocksafety.com/
https://deflock.org/
https://maps.deflock.org/?lat=39.8283&lng=-98.5795&zoom=4.00
Warrantless Surveillance, Coming to a Town Near You
Image credit: Map of Data Points Shared Out of Mt. Juliet, TN.
Flock cameras are on the forefront of every freedom fighting mind in Tennessee, and across the country for that matter. Did you know our General Assembly had a bill presented to them in February, 2026 that would have prevented this level of surveillance from happening here in our state?
The “Protecting Everyone from Excessive Police Surveillance (PEEPS) Act”, or HB2608/SB2215, was a bill sponsored by Representative Hulsey and Senator Walley. In it, the bill states:
“The general assembly finds that government officials or entities violate the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution when, without adequate safeguards, such officials and entities create or access databases that reveal or contain information that can be used to reveal an individual’s or vehicle’s historical locations.”
It goes on to specify that “A government official shall not access a database that reveals historical location data unless:
The bill sponsors also made sure to include language which would require all data to not be sold or conveyed to any “private, non-governmental third party” for any reason.
Unfortunately, this bill did not make it past the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee or the Senate Judiciary Committee. The House Criminal Justice Subcommittee is made up entirely of Republicans. The Senate Judiciary Committee is made up of 9 Republicans and 2 Democrats.
Flock Cameras are being set up all across the country under the assurance that they will be used by our local police departments to identify those who are breaking the law. Although mostly located on highways and along well-traveled streets, many stores such as Academy and Home Depot are installing them to help identify criminals.
At first glance, and for anyone who doesn’t remember the surveillance state we lived under in 2020, ensuring public safety and using tax dollars to do so may not seem threatening.
But the reality is, we did live under a surveillance state where tax dollars were used to enforce anti-liberty protocols and where, if cameras were set up and could track the movement of those who were breaking those protocols would have been used to hold people accountable to the government’s mandates.
Flock Cameras are cameras designed to capture the make, model, color of a car, the license plate, and any stickers or identifying information.
The data is taken and stored in a cloud database. Anyone with a paying subscription can have access to the data they track. Whether it’s the US Government, Marion County Sheriff’s Office or a Homeowner’s Association, you will be able to see every single car that drives by.
The information is not public, there is no public database of who is tracking the data. As a tax-paying citizen of Tennessee who drives to work everyday, takes their kids to practice after school, makes a weekly grocery run, your every move is recorded and saved as a data point, but you don’t have access to it.
Just across the Tennessee border, within the last few months, 10 members of law enforcement in Georgia have been arrested for mis-using the data they have access to.
Not only do government employees and those who work for private organizations, like Home Depot, have access to this data, local sheriff’s offices share all of their data nationwide. No warrant is needed, no “consent of the governed” to have your personal details shared across the state lines; our freedom to travel privately is a thing of the past.
DeFlock is a movement of citizens who are aiming to push back.
From their website, you can see a nationwide map of all the flock cameras citizens have reported. The map allows you to put in your travel information, and it will give you a map of how to travel in order to avoid being tracked.
Another valuable resource the DeFlock map provides is the ability to see who each agency is sharing their data with. If you look at Maryville’s Police Department, they have 16 cameras. They mutually share their data with 31 other police departments, from Blairsville, Georgia, to Huron, Ohio, to Chicago, Illinois.
They send our data to 2,038 agencies, spanning from east to west coast.
They receive other’s data from 10 agencies, covering North Carolina, South Carolina, Michigan and Ohio.
According to their Flock portal, they have read 387,329 unique license plates over the last 30 days.
This is one police department in the state of Tennessee. Several counties have not set up flock cameras yet, but these have: Hamilton, Shelby, Davidson, Knox, Blount, Washington, Sumner, Rutherford, Wilson, Madison, Decatur, Anderson, Chester and Hamblen.
The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution states, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
What do we do in Tennessee when our Law of the Land is not protected? There are some that will take this into their own hands, as many in the DeFlock organization are doing. For others, this is why we must elect men and women who will stand against a surveillance state and honor the rights protected in our Constitution. We had a handful of representatives attempt to do so this year, but Republicans blocked them from moving forward.
Before you make your vote, be sure to do your research on where the candidates stand in regards to honoring our Constitution, our privacy depends on it.
Resources:
https://www.flocksafety.com/
https://deflock.org/
https://maps.deflock.org/?lat=39.8283&lng=-98.5795&zoom=4.00
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Anne Lowery
Anne Lowery