Community on Flock

Banner: Blue Springs, MO by Matt Ridings · CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Open-mic speakers and one resident’s written path to Mayor and Council. They add chamber and letter context to the Sunshine and resolution record.

Speakers · Letters · Reply map

Council visitors (summer 2026)

Minutes 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.

Named visitors who addressed Flock at City Council
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, not a transparency “middle ground.” Liability, ~$4.6M path, patent/person-detection theme. Time cut mid-excerpt. Video · Transcript · Minutes
  • June 1 floor reply: chair thanked speakers, called the topic popular, said evaluation with police continues, invited public-safety-board applications.
  • July 6 floor reply: thanks only; no substantive answer on the floor.

Speaker claims about other cities or “cases solved” are not City evaluation packages. Eval categories: 211-2026.

Letters to Mayor and Council

One Blue Springs resident’s June–August 2026 written advocacy. “No reply” means nothing in the retained thread as of .

Reply map

Resident letters and reply status
When Resident action To Reply in retained thread
~12:51 p.m. Terminate / govern Flock Mayor + six Council seats Mayor replied same day. No councilmember replies retained.
~5:15 p.m. Metrics and access questions Mayor Mayor replied .
Oversight sources letter Mayor + Council No reply retained (as of Aug 7).
Post–211-2026 follow-up (NPD categories, what Council relied on) Mayor + Council No reply retained (as of Aug 7).

Letter notes

: Resident petition

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 #1

Pilot 2023; “useful tool”; expansion from effectiveness “experienced first hand”; cameras “do not actively track anyone”; ~30-day plate store; identity only after investigatory search; contracts on Council agendas; feedback “generally positive” quote above; offer to connect resources. Cc included mayor/council and clerk lists.

Sixteen days after the June 1 open-mic comments, Mayor Lievsay replied:

“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,

: Resident metrics questions

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.

: Mayor reply #2

“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.

: Sources letter · no reply retained

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.

: Post-211 follow-up · no reply retained

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.

Limits

  • Does not poll Blue Springs opinion or invent private mail volume beyond the mayor’s wording.
  • Does not replace resolutions, minutes, or Sunshine custodian tables.
  • Peer links in letters are comparative, not Blue Springs performance numbers.

Reporters: Press kit · Community.