What the "Flock" is happening in Meade County?
Updated: 3 days ago
I decided to try to piece together when and how Flock cameras became a part of our everyday life in Meade County. To the best of my ability, this is the information that I was able to cobble together ...
Between September 2025-December 2025, the Meade County Sheriff's Office accepted donations from local businesses, private citizens, Meade County School Board, and Brandenburg City Council to pay for our county's Flock Safety Program. Several Facebook posts were made thanking the businesses, public institutions, and private citizens for their generous donations and they stated that these flock cameras would be used to "provide information to identify suspect vehicles, track repeat offenders across jurisdictions, and assist in investigations to solve cases more efficiently."
Before any Flock camera's were ever installed in our county, the Meade County Sheriff's Office reported three stolen vehicles recovered because they had been spotted by flock cameras in other counties. These posts were made on Oct. 31st, Nov. 10th, and Nov. 19th of 2025.
In March of 2026, six Flock cameras were installed at various locations throughout our county. The exact date when these camera's were up and running is unknown because the Meade County Sheriff's Office did not make any announcements to the public about their installation. We do know, however, that it cost $3,500 per camera for the initial installation and another $3,500 per camera annually. That's an initial investment of $42,000 for the first year and $21,000 each year after that. If you want to know the exact locations of these Flock cameras, go to https://deflock.org/ and click on the blue "Launch the Map" button.
Fast forward six months ... on August 28th, 2026, the Meade County Sheriff's Office posted on Facebook that there would be a Community Town Hall on September 9th to discuss the Flock Safety Program in Meade County. The town hall was attended by many concerned citizens and everyone who wanted to speak in favor or against flock cameras was given the opportunity to do so and to also ask questions. You can watch a video of this town hall by clicking on the following link ...https://www.wvih.com/wp1/index.php/on-demand/#clip=6bux3uc4blog&time=0 and then selecting the video entitled "Flock Town Hall."
On September 11th, just two days after the town hall, the Meade County Sheriff's Office posted on Facebook that a Flock Transparency Portal would be available soon. The post stated that the portal would help to increase the transparency and accountability surrounding our Flock Safety Program.
It's now October 14th, just a little over a month after the announcement of the Flock Transparency Portal, and the portal is no where to be seen. I've reached out to the Sheriff's Office and asked when we can expect the portal to be up and running, but I haven't received a response yet. When I do, I will be sure to share that information with you.
Now, I'm just left with a series of questions ...
1) How many crimes in our county have been solved using information obtained from these Flock cameras since their installation in March of 2025?
2) When will the Flock Transparency Portal be activated?
3) When the initial year lease runs out, who will be footing the $21,000 bill for our county's Flock Safety Program? Will it be funded again though private donations or public tax dollars?
4) Why did the video of the Flock Town Hall disappear from Facebook? I had a post on my personal Facebook page and on my campaign Facebook page with the link to this video and both posts are gone. The video also was removed from the Meade County Sheriff's Office Facebook Page? Was there a copyright issue or some other reason this video was taken down?
These are all important questions that I believe need to be answered by Meade County's Sheriff Department. Do you agree?
IMPORTANT UPDATE ...
After multiple emails sent to the Meade County Sheriff Department, I finally received this reply. A big thank you for Lieutenant Knell for sharing this information with me ...
Stacy,
Good morning.,
I understand that this is your 4th time requesting the information, just so you know, the Meade County IT Department is diligently working on the Flock Transparency Portal on the website. Just Friday, the 23rd of Oct, reviewed the final draft of the website and it will be available NLT Wednesday, 28 Oct for the public to view. Please let me know if you have any other questions.
v/r
Lieutenant Danny Knell
Criminal Investigations Division
Meade County Sheriff's Office
Office: 270-422-4937
Cell: 270-617-3089
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