CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – The use of Flock cameras has been under fire nationally in recent months, including the Knox County Commission on Aug. 31 voting unanimously to remove the advanced license plate reading (LPR) technology from their county due to privacy concerns.

However, this camera technology is nothing new in Clarksville and Montgomery County, where both the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office and the Clarksville Police Department have seen many successes in using the cameras to solve crimes and locate missing persons.

Last month, Clarksville Police Chief Ty Burdine addressed the city Finance Committee on the topic of Flock cameras, which are not used by the City of Clarksville, he said. Instead, Clarksville has a contract with one of their LPR competitors, Motorola Solutions.

“Back when we were getting LPRs, Motorola was on a state contract, and that’s who we went with,” Burdine said. “From the very conception, our camera systems, first of all, gave us a lot of capabilities. And we perform audits every quarter to make sure it’s being done consistently and with reason.”

‘Majority of our department doesn’t have capability’

Nationally, concerns have been raised about law enforcement workers accessing Flock data for personal use, such as tracking the movements of family members or ex-girlfriends. But Burdine said safeguards are in place to prevent that from happening in Clarksville.

“You cannot just arbitrarily go in there and search,” Burdine said of Clarksville’s system. “You have to have reasons to go search, and all of that is kept up with through an audit trail. … We also from the very beginning limited who can obtain our camera searching capabilities; the majority of our department doesn’t have capability.”

Burdine said no patrol officer has access to the system; only investigators and supervisors have access. “Our people know, if used for the wrong purpose, what’s going to happen. There are consequences, and they know it.”

‘I can’t tell you how many times that this has brought justice to families’

CPD has 16 LPR camera locations, and Burdine said these have proven effective.

“My stance has been all along as a citizen, I don’t like cameras every single place there is,” he said. “But if you look back at the data showing residential burglaries back in the day, we had lots of them. What happened when Ring cameras came up? They stopped.

“If you want to know one of the most impactful tools that we’ve had to leverage being so short-staffed and keeping crime low, it’s been the LPR technology,” Burdine said. “My job is not only to keep the city as safe as it can be, but my job is also to bring justice to families, victims.

“From bank robberies to homicide and shooting suspects, it’s helped bring people to justice,” he said.

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CPD spokesman Scott Beaubien told Clarksville Now that LPR technology has also assisted in missing person cases – including missing juveniles – the recovery of stolen vehicles, and investigations involving reckless endangerment, aggravated assault and armed suspects. “They have also been used to help identify and locate a vehicle involved in a hit-and-run that resulted in a fatality,” said Beaubien.

Beaubien said with the department currently having more than 40 officer vacancies, LPR technology is a valuable asset. “It provides investigators with additional information that can help develop and support investigative leads, particularly when time and resources are limited,” he said.

MCSO has used Flock cameras since 2021

According to previous reports, the Montgomery County’s Sheriff’s Office has had Flock LPR cameras since 2021, and they’ve been used to solve dozens of crimes. In 2024, MCSO had eight stationary units and three mobile units. The Flock cameras helped solve more than 60 cases as of 2024.

Clarksville Now has reached out to MCSO for an update, and that data is being reviewed.

MCSO said that even though Flock has access to every camera, the Sheriff’s Office maintains administrative control over their own network. According to previous reports, the Flock system photos are retained for 30 days before they are permanently purged, and the snapshots are not accessible to the public.

Nia Holland contributed to this report.

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