Flock Safety Update: KORA Response, Council Meeting, Drones, and a New Public Resource
A consolidated update before I go dark for a week.
There’s been a lot of movement on the Flock Safety front this week. Before I head out of town with my family, here’s where things stand — and what’s coming when I get back.
KORA #26-1385: The City Needs More Time
The city has responded to my open records request. Not with the contract — with a notice that they need until at least March 27 to comply.
That’s not unusual given the scope of the request. But it’s worth sitting with for a moment: a routine public records request about a $1 million-plus surveillance contract takes the city of Wichita several weeks to fulfill. We’ll see what actually arrives on the 27th.
I’m Meeting With My Council Member on March 23
I have an in-person meeting scheduled with my District 5 council member on Monday, March 23.
If you live in Wichita and care about this issue, I’d encourage you to request a similar meeting with your own district’s representative. You don’t need to be a policy expert or a lawyer. Showing up and asking questions is enough. Before we take this to a full council meeting, I want to understand where individual members stand — and I can’t do that alone. Council members in other districts are unlikely to meet with me directly, so residents in those districts need to be the ones making contact.
Find your district and council member at wichita.gov, then request a meeting here.
New: The ALPR Abuse Library
One of the arguments we’ll inevitably hear from WPD and city leadership is some version of “trust us — these cameras are used responsibly.”
I’ve been building a resource to answer that directly.
The ALPR Abuse Library is a publicly accessible, collaboratively maintained index of published news articles documenting ALPR abuses across the country — false arrests from misreads, officers using systems to stalk ex-partners, data breaches, and mass surveillance of people with no connection to any crime.
The goal is simple: when the city asks for your trust, you should be able to point to a citable, searchable record of what happens when that trust is misplaced.
Anyone can submit an article for review. No Google or GitHub account required. I vet every submission — published sources only, no social media rumors.
Submit an article: forms.gle/isGYpLcKu9YeFzSm9
Browse the library: github.com/kansas-watch/alpr-abuse-library
On the Drones
WPD published a Facebook Reel last year showcasing their Real Time Information Center (RTIC). It’s worth watching — I showed it to my soon-to-be 15-year-old as an example of what police-state propaganda looks like. They’re clearly proud of it. The footage includes WPD drones in active surveillance operations.
Here’s what makes that relevant to this investigation:
Flock Safety sells a product called Flock DFR — Drone as First Responder. It’s an automated drone system that launches in response to 911 calls, reads license plates from up to 2,000 feet, streams live thermal and night-vision video to dispatch, and integrates directly with their ALPR network. Their flagship drone reaches 60 mph and can cover 50 square miles.
I don’t yet know whether the drones in that WPD reel are Flock’s. But if they are — and given that we already have 310+ Flock ALPR cameras in this city, it’s a reasonable question — that information should be in the records arriving on March 27.
According to Reddit user Strange_Aidee, “There are flock drones that operate off of the top of the QT at Washington and Douglas. They are actually flock drones.” User AncientAchilles added: “I actually overheard the manager(?) and an officer discussing putting drones on the roof of the QT on broadway and Kellogg a month or so ago.”
Whatever the case: drones + ALPRs + a Real Time Information Center is a surveillance stack worth understanding. Wichita residents deserve to know exactly what they’re funding.
What’s Next
I’ll be out with my family next week, so this is likely my last post for a bit. But there’s plenty to dig into when I’m back:
The patent angle. Flock is a private company, and they’ve almost certainly filed patents on their core technology. Patents are public records. They can tell us — sometimes in more detail than the company would voluntarily disclose — exactly how these systems work, what data they capture, and how it’s processed.
Cybersecurity. A network of 310+ internet-connected cameras feeding into a centralized platform is an attack surface. Flock cameras run Android Things 8/8.1 — Google’s IoT platform that reached end-of-life in January 2022, no longer receives security updates, and carries hundreds of known vulnerabilities. Who has access to this data, under what controls, and what happens if the system is compromised? These are not hypothetical questions.
Get Involved
If you find a relevant news article about ALPR abuse anywhere in the country, submit it to the library. If you’re in Wichita, contact your council member before the contract details become public — that’s when the conversation is easiest to influence.
And if you’d like to join the private Facebook group I created — Deflock KS — send me a DM.
More when I’m back.
Kansas Watch is a civic watchdog publication covering public accountability in Kansas. If this work is useful to you, consider becoming a paid subscriber here on Substack or throwing as little as $5 my way on Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/kansaswatch.