Blue Springs Flock RecordPublic document archive

Transcript · Will Smalley & Aaron Volk

Blue Springs City Council visitor comments, June 1, 2026. Resident transcription of City meeting video, not city minutes.

← Speakers · Smalley · Volk · Council reply

Source

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

Will Smalley

Position (from speech): Supports the program overall; wants accountability and transparency fixes, not termination. Self-ID: grew up in Blue Springs; college in Omaha; back starting a job.

[Chair:] Mr. Smalley in the audience, like to come to speak? You've got 3 minutes to tell us what you're thinking.

Mayor [Lievsay], Council—thank you for this opportunity to speak to you guys. My name is Will Smalley. I grew up in Blue Springs. I went to Omaha for 4 years for college, and I'm back here starting my job. Super excited about that.

What I'm here today to talk to you about is the City's usage of Flock cameras and all of the Flock technology. I think this is a great thing, and I'm very excited that we've taken these steps to protect the residents of Blue Springs, but I have a few concerns with accountability and transparency to the public that I'd like to address.

A couple examples across the state line in Kansas—three things I want to highlight. First, in 2023, in Kechi, Kansas, a lieutenant pleaded guilty in computer crime and stalking after using the Flock database to track his estranged wife. We had another similar case in 2025 in Bonner Springs, and then another in 2023 where the police chief actually resigned because he used Flock over 200 times to track his ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend. So we've seen, very close to home and also across the country, instances where there has not been that accountability. People have maybe misused the platform, and that's something I have heard other people voice concerns about.

Again, I think this is overall a good program. I know we've already solved some cases in Blue Springs with this technology, and I want to commend the Council for signing that deal last year to get on top of that. But I do think it would be good to try to prevent misuses. I would also note that these are three examples from Kansas where the people were prosecuted or they resigned—but that's also a bit of survivorship bias in that we maybe don't know the ones that haven't been caught.

So I would come to you today with three asks:

  1. Turn off federal and out-of-state sharing. It's a simple thing in the settings from what I understand in the Flock database. That way, only our local police department can access that sensitive data for our community.
  2. Mandate published search audits that are reviewed by this Council—transparency as to who is searching things in the database, what they're searching, and when—to prevent those misuses.
  3. Put ALPR (automated license plate reader) oversight as an official item on a future City Council meeting agenda, so there can be more of a resident voice in this matter.

I would love to hear your thoughts, ideas, and how we can continue to improve this system. I think we have a great foundation, but the best-case scenario is we can have this accountability and oversight so that everything runs smoothly and we can keep protecting people in Blue Springs. Thank you.

[Chair:] Thank you, Mr. [Smalley], for your time today.

Aaron Volk

Position (from speech): Safety-friendly; primary concern is who can access search data and misuse (HIPAA-style penalties analogy). Self-ID: grew up Blue Springs; scouting / Eagle Scout; University of Missouri nursing degree; back in Blue Springs.

[Chair:] Next then, I have Aaron Volk. You have 3 minutes to address the Council.

Mayor, Council—I want to thank you today for letting me speak. I have also grown up here in Blue Springs with all these wonderful people here. We've been part of the community since I can't tell you when—being through scouting, getting our Eagle Scout here, having my brother make his own flag box and contributing back to the community. I've been formally taking my degree over the past 4 years at the University of Missouri, [to] get my nursing license, and it's been nice to come back and be able to see how Blue Springs has prospered and grown.

My concern is with how Will stated with the cameras. I've seen how in Columbia, Missouri, there has been [discussion of] crime … and how the introduction of the Flock cameras [interacted with that]. With my concern coming back to Blue Springs is: what is this going to take with it? What are people going to be able to have access to? I've seen how back in Columbia, Missouri, it's had its concerns with how people have searched through the databases and used it [to others'] disadvantage.

I'd like to approach this idea as well with people's understanding of their personal information. We kind of have the system in health care called HIPAA—the idea of being able to [protect] information through health-care records[, with] penalties in place and fines and jail time. My concern is being able to have a system where we feel safe in our community as the next generation coming here in Blue Springs. We want to keep people in this city and keep [it] strong, but I love the idea of keeping our community safe and going forth with that.

Columbia remarks are partly unclear on the recording. They are peer context from the speaker. Not a Blue Springs evaluation package.

Council reply (chair, same night)

Sense of the audio (not formal minutes):

  • Thanked both; called the topic a popular issue.
  • Said Council and police continue evaluating program appropriateness and accountability.
  • Invited public-safety-board applications (oversight related to public safety sales tax and police work).
  • Said they would continue to be in touch.

← Back to speakers table · Porter transcript (Jul 6)