Flock system has already benefited NC

Published 1:10 pm Wednesday, August 19, 2026

Editor’s Note: This is the second of a three-part series on Flock Cameras. Dr. Fowler looks at the national movement with these cameras.

How has this system already benefited Newton County Sheriff’s Office?

• Just last month, Flock was used to find Nathan Stuart in a neighboring jurisdiction after a warrant was issued.

• Flock was used to locate a missing and wanted person out of Tennessee. Flock cameras had the vehicle heading towards Newton County but no county camera saw the vehicle. Process of elimination proved right and vehicle, and driver, were found where expected near Hwy 43 in Ponca. The person was experiencing a mental breakdown (possibly a threat to themselves and others).

• A couple had court-ordered custody of a young girl (6 or 7 years old), the alleged biological father showed up with law enforcement and took the child. He reportedly told the couple that they would never see the child again.

The couple went to see Ethredge, who confirmed the court order and worked with law enforcement, since “violation of a court order” is a felony, to locate the vehicle.

Around 3 p.m., he contacted Arkansas State Police, and approximately 30 minutes later, he received a call that they had located the vehicle outside of Clarksville. Within another 15 minutes, the girl was in the custody of the state police. That night, the girl was back home. All of this occurred in a three-hour time span.

• Without specifics, Flock was said to allow law enforcement to locate drug-related activity that they knew was going to happen, but not the location.

• It also enabled the intervention of child trafficking when they knew the suspected vehicle the victim was in.

• It can also be used to receive notifications for other jurisdictions, e.g., Wheeler has set Pope and Boone counties to see if anyone is heading toward Newton County (doesn’t want more because already gets “too many notifications.”) However, he will add Searcy County when theirs are active.

Both were asked to address constitutional concerns with this system, in particular contrasted with what many posit as one of the cornerstones of the American legal system, namely, The Blackstone Ratio. The Blackstone Ratio addresses the balance between protecting the innocent and punishing the guilty: the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. Sir William Blackstone was an English jurist in the mid-1700s who is purported to have said, “It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.”

Wheeler responded, “I believe the sheriff is the front-line protector of your constitutional rights.” He states that he contracted for, and is using, this system in good faith and is not engaging in, condoning, or allowing the infringement of constitutional rights in so doing. Further, he expresses no interest in stockpiling information on the people of the county, but there are people, in his words, “that he needs to keep tabs on, without violating their constitutional rights. I don’t care if they’re dope dealers or murderers, but they still have constitutional rights.”

Ethredge, in response to the same question, said, “It’s a difficult trade – balancing the benefits with the potential harms. As a staunch supporter and defender of the U.S. Constitution, I never want to say that I’m willing to give up my freedoms for being safe. And that is what we are doing every day, whether we think we do, or not. Apps on your phone, going in to stores with networked cameras, often with facial recognition capabilities, these all provide opportunity for abuse and violations of rights protected by the Constitution.”

Both understand the concerns, embrace the duty to preserve and defend rights enshrined in the Constitution, have not seen any evidence of misuse, and would not, in Ethredge’s words, “utilize, or allow to be utilized, something that he considers to be constitutionally incorrect.” Ethredge has already backed that claim when he terminated people’s employment for abusing existing systems such as the Arkansas Crime Information Center (ACIC) and NCIC.

Going further, Ethredge, as one of 28 elected prosecuting attorneys in Arkansas and current President of the Arkansas Prosecuting Attorneys Association, says these camera systems are frequently discussed among the prosecuting attorneys, with his having noted nothing of concern. When asked if he was aware of anyone conducting a compliance audit on Flock, Ethredge said, ‘no’’ but that it was a good idea and that he will suggest to the other prosecuting attorneys that they propose legislation requiring regular audits in the upcoming session.

From the customer side, there are already numerous safeguards in place to prevent, detect, or at least provide an audit trail for (alleged) abuse of the system. Such safeguards include access being restricted, logged, and reviewed; sharing of customer data is determined solely by the agency; data is encrypted on-device, and when stored and transferred, in line with the highest industry standards; and limited data retention.

Additionally, Arkansas Act 668, updated in 2025, requires entities using ALPRs to promulgate rules and policies concerning the manner and method of obtaining, retaining, and destroying captured plate data and make those rules and policies available for public inspection. Wheeler reports that his office is working on complying.

On the surface, the company is used by thousands of trusted agencies across the country, has been used in countless successful crime investigations, and appears accommodating for the way things are done in the Ozarks.

All, for a significant bargain over having law enforcement personnel try to accomplish comparable things.

And, besides a few “conspiracy theorists” (the same ones who banter about the quotation by Benjamin Franklin, “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety”, as though it pertains to the current situation), who are concerned about a technocratic surveillance state; the new safety and security tech-partnered ecosystem seems legitimate and definitely not what our forefathers warned us about.

Almost sounds too good to be true.