The White County Commissioners voted Monday to rescind a previous resolution authorizing the use of license plate surveillance cameras throughout the county.
Board Chair Derrick Hutchings said the commission decided to reverse course after receiving significant feedback from residents regarding the Flock Safety technology. Hutchings said the board previously approved the cameras in April 2025 at the request of the Sheriff’s Department. Hutchings said he agreed with citizens’ concerns about privacy.
“We’re not the Sheriff’s Department,” Hutchings said. “I mean I don’t dispute what you’re saying, we’ve… I feel like the commission has done everything in our legal possible realm that we can do to say that ‘We do not want these here.’ The Sheriff’s Department says he’s put something out, the Sheriff has.”
Hutchings said the cameras were installed around September or October of last year and are likely still collecting data as long as they remain standing. Hutchings said the responsibility for the physical removal of the equipment falls on the Sheriff’s Department because that agency initiated the contract. Hutchings said he implores the security company to stop surveilling.
“The Flock cameras are what invades a privacy, then you have the data centers that are collecting that data that reports it out, so we need to stop both of them,” Hutchings said. “I just hope they do what’s right, and there’s a big movement across the state and across the country for removal of these cameras, so I hope they listen to what people are asking for and remove them like they should.”
White County resident Danny Blitz said the county should take immediate action to stop the surveillance while waiting for the company to retrieve the hardware. Blitz said she and other citizens would be willing to place bags over the cameras to ensure they are no longer surveying residents, and asked County Executive Denny Wayne Robinson to intervene.
“I would ask Denny, since Denny was the one that was supposed to authorize that contract to begin with, that he be the one that intercept and say this was never authorized,” Blitz said. “Flock is therefore not supposed to be here to begin with.”
Blitz said she suggested covering the cameras up with bags, but County Attorney Sam Benningfield said the county should not touch the equipment if it is not county property. Benningfield said the state previously gave the company permission to be on the right of way, and the county would need to research the legal process for removal.
“Self-help is never an appropriate resolution, rarely, I won’t say never,” Benningfield said.
Resident Franco Colella said the county needs to identify which state officials have the authority to order the removal of the cameras from state roads.
“If we can’t at a county act on it then we have to go to the state, I would just look to the county to say ‘Who do I need to speak to at the state level to remove what we don’t want in the county that we’re not supporting, they shouldn’t be getting data and all these things from the service,’” Colella said. “So that’s all I’m just looking to see how do we act on this?”
In other business, the board approved a $177,000 JAG Grant for reentry services at the jail and a $45,000 resolution for fire truck repairs and purchases for the Eastland and Central View fire departments.