Banner: Blue Springs, MO by Matt Ridings · CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Public meetings, open-mic speakers, and one resident’s written letters to Mayor and Council.
Meetings · Speakers · Letters · Replies
Agendas and minutes: City calendar · Agenda Center.
Local coverage: KCTV5, September 14 · KCTV5, September 16 · KSHB 41, September 22 · Coverage.
Where minutes are posted, they often only say that people “spoke regarding Flock cameras.” Positions and video timestamps are from City YouTube. Linked transcripts are resident transcriptions of that video, not city minutes.
| Date | Speaker | Position (from video) | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Will Smalley | Supports the program overall. Asks: turn off federal and out-of-state sharing; publish search audits for Council review; put ALPR on a future agenda. Cites Kansas misuse cases. | Video · Transcript · Minutes | |
| Aaron Volk | Safety-friendly; access and misuse risk (HIPAA-style penalties analogy). Columbia peer concerns as context. | Video · Transcript · Minutes | |
| Brandon Porter | Absolute opposition. Liability, ~$4.6M path, patent/person-detection theme. Time cut mid-excerpt. | Video · Transcript · Minutes | |
| Robert Jestus | Future agenda on city-held analysis for RES 87/108, success metrics before expansion, third-party audits, terminate authority. Left written questions with Clerk. (Chair introduced “Justice”; spelling is Jestus.) | Video · Transcript · KSHB 41 | |
| Adrian | Backs accountability asks; questions outcomes without driver ID; future-use safeguards for retained data. (Late speaker form; chair form spelling not confirmed against posted minutes.) | Video · Transcript |
Speaker claims about other cities or “cases solved” are not City evaluation packages. Eval categories: 211-2026.
One Blue Springs resident’s June–August 2026 written letters. “No reply” means no reply found here as of .
| When | Resident action | To | Reply status |
|---|---|---|---|
| ~12:51 p.m. | Terminate / govern Flock | Mayor + six Council seats | same day. found. |
| ~5:15 p.m. | Metrics and access questions | Mayor | . |
| Oversight sources letter | Mayor + Council | found (as of Aug 24). | |
| Post-211-2026 follow-up (“No Preexisting documents” categories; what Council relied on) | Mayor + Council | found (as of Aug 24). | |
| ~10:03 a.m. | Terminate / non-continue follow-up (eval gap, peers, outcomes link) | Mayor + Council | found. |
To Mayor Lievsay and Councilmembers Kaylor, Ericson, Tholen, Markworth, Rowan, Brummel. Six asks: terminate Flock contracts; remove infrastructure from public property; no ALPR expansion without voter approval; account for / delete non-required data; publish retention/sharing/access/audit/oversight policies; public review before future surveillance spends.
Mayor reply paraphrased from June 17 email: pilot 2023; “useful tool”; expansion from effectiveness “experienced first hand”; cameras “do not actively track anyone”; identity only after investigatory plate search; contracts on Council agendas; feedback “generally positive”; offer to connect resources. Quoted passages below.
“The cameras do not actively track anyone. They simply take a picture of a license plate, and store that photo for 30 days before its automatically deleted. No one knows where you or anyone else has been. Unless the police department has an investigatory reason to look, only then can that particular license plate be searched, and only after that anyone’s identity is attached to it through other police department controlled systems.”
Mayor Chris Lievsay,
Capt. Kyle Flowers told KCTV5 (Apr 26, 2024) the cameras “can read much more than license plates” and investigators can search without a plate by make, model, and other characteristics. Council later added Freeform on RES 87-2025. Wilbur Young case: Outcomes.
Location history and retention (Carpenter / Chatrie; portal still 30 days as of Sep 22): Sunshine.
“The community feedback has been generally positive, so far only a couple residents of Blue Springs that has reached out to me with concern, although I am sure you’re not alone with all of the misinformation out there.”
Mayor Chris Lievsay,
To Mayor: quantify arrests from alerts, recoveries, violent crimes solved, expansion outcomes, cost-benefit; also outside access, access-log audits, federal sharing, retention beyond 30 days via export.
“There is definitely room for different opinions. This program is one of the many tools used by the police department and it is evaluated similarly. I do not have that level of detail available for this particular tool, but records can be requested here … At the moment, the Council seems to agree the current accountability measures are appropriate, but as with all programs that is continuously evaluated.”
Sunshine path used thereafter: How to Request a Public Record. Result for eval categories: 211-2026.
To Mayor + Council: Ventura access/config issue statement; Flock California guardrails post; ACLU vendor-cred piece; KSHB on Weston removal. Asked for independent verification of safeguards and performance.
To Mayor + Council after custodian’s itemized 211-2026 answer: listed “no preexisting” evaluation/outcome categories; sole quantitative figure 618,781 alerts as of July 15, 2026; asked what objective information supported approval/expansion if those packages do not exist as city records, how verbal presentations were evaluated, and why slides were to be requested from Flock. Detail: 211-2026.
To Mayor + Council, replying to Aug 4. Covers the ~$4,666,900 / 10-year path and 211 “No Preexisting documents” for evaluation/outcome categories; portal activity and seven Success Stories vs missing city-held tallies (Outcomes); 166-2026 audit-export close and 238-2025 metrics-intent mail; plate-only mayor wording vs Freeform / characteristic search; proposed FY 2026–27 expansion; comparative Missouri peers (Weston, Bolivar, Pulaski County).
One resident’s letters, not a poll. Resolutions, minutes, and Sunshine custodian tables are the primary records. Press · Community.
