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Own the Narrative

Leaked Flock guide shows how it teaches cops to promote its tech.

“Own the narrative before someone else does.”
Flock Safety’s guide for police departments, reported by 404 Media. It is also the closing chapter of How to Speak to City Councils: Meeting the Moment with Confidence, published on the company’s own site — read the guide.
“Don’t avoid the concept of mass surveillance because you’re not going to convince opponents that it’s not.”
The same guide, reported by 404 Media. The company is not telling departments to deny it. It is telling them not to bother.

We didn’t invent that phrase to make them look bad. It is straight from their contents page: Moving the Conversation from Surveillance to Governance. The whole guide is a method for moving people from the first word to the second one without ever answering the question they came to ask.

See the original article here

You are not confused. You are not overreacting. You are not being unreasonable about cameras. You were asked a different question than the one you turned up with.

Flock trains officials on what to say.

It is on the company’s own website.

What it looks like in the room.

It never looks like lying. It looks like a reasonable person answering a different question than the one they were asked.

Example 1

Name a real risk. Then offer a fix that moves the risk somewhere you cannot see it.

“From a continuity standpoint, we're currently trying to find a different example — but if we have a tornado that wipes out city hall, all of our computer systems that are currently housed here are done. We're gone. We're in the dark ages currently because our servers are so old. We're having to go back to pen and pad.”
Chief Derek Wright. Springdale City Council, 2:29:58, August 25, 2026. He is answering a resident who asked why the city could not run a closed system it controls.

This is gaslighting.

  • Flock servers could be subject to a natural disaster too.
  • Plus there are many more variables between us and those servers than if they had them here.
“This Agreement is not assignable, transferable or sublicensable by either Party, without prior consent. Notwithstanding the foregoing, either Party may assign this Agreement, without the other Party's consent, (i) to any parent, subsidiary, or affiliate entity, or (ii) to any purchaser of all or substantially all of such Party's assets or to any successor by way of merger, consolidation or similar transaction.”
Master Services Agreement, City of Springdale and Flock Group Inc., § 11.3

Whoever buys Flock inherits the agreement, and inherits the licence to Springdale's data with it. Springdale is not asked. That is a continuity problem a tornado cannot cause and a hardened server room cannot suffer.

And the department cannot tell you the terms that govern the building the data actually sits in, because it says it has never been given a copy of them.

Twenty seconds before the tornado line, answering the same resident: “I'm completely out of my depth when I'm talking about computers.”

Flock Safety webinar page titled How to Speak to City Councils: Meeting the Moment with Confidence.

How to Speak to City Councils: Meeting the Moment with Confidence

Who it's for: Law Enforcement

Published on Flock Safety's own website, under Resources, Webinars.

What You’ll Learn

  • How to answer common council questions
  • How to address misinformation with clarity
  • How to shift from reactive defense to proactive partnership
  • Processes that help you stay ahead of risk
  • How to set up your Transparency Portal

What You’ll Get

  • Updated social toolkit for PIOs
  • Chief-to-Council guide with added trust and compliance guidance
  • Objection-handling playbook, including: Clear ways to reframe common concerns and respond to misinformation

Who Should Attend

  • Law enforcement command staff and agency leadership
  • Public information officers
  • Agencies preparing for or currently facing city council questions

Read the guide yourself.

This teaches them how to work the words.

The people who sold our city the tech are also showing cities how to quiet us.

How to Speak to City Councils: Meeting the Moment with Confidence

Building Trust, Demonstrating Accountability, and Preparing for Tough Questions

14 pages. Flock Safety.

Open the document

The whole thing, exactly as it was produced. Nothing on this page is a paraphrase of it.

Contents

  1. Chapter 1 Trust Is Now Part of the Job
  2. Chapter 2 Moving the Conversation from Surveillance to Governance
  3. Chapter 3 Accountability Is Stronger When It Is Visible
  4. Chapter 4 The Strongest Budget Argument Is Local
  5. Chapter 5 Local Control Matters
  6. Chapter 6 Transparency Builds Resilience
  7. Conclusion Own the Narrative Before Someone Else Does

Chapter two is the one to sit with. The company that sells the cameras has written a chapter for police departments called Moving the Conversation from Surveillance to Governance. That is not our characterisation of the strategy. It is their table of contents.

Seven things the training teaches, and what was said here.

1
The training says

“Show the guardrails.”

From the guide's closing checklist, page 12.

Springdale said

“So I want to kind of explain what guardrails we've put in place, what's a little bit different.”

Chief Derek Wright. Springdale City Council, 1:55:15, August 25, 2026.

2
The training says

“One of the most effective ways to build confidence is to show safeguards rather than simply describe them.”

From the guide, Chapter 3: Accountability Is Stronger When It Is Visible.

Springdale said

“And I believe we've got those safeguards in place.”

Mayor Doug Sprouse. Springdale City Council, 8:48, August 25, 2026.

3
The training says

“How to address misinformation with clarity.”

Listed on the webinar page under What You'll Learn.

Springdale said

“As you know, there's a lot of misinformation that's gone around publicly.”

Chief Derek Wright. Springdale City Council, 1:54:47, August 25, 2026.

And the Mayor, earlier the same night: “a lot of what people are assuming, that the information we get through those Flock cameras, is just not accurate.”

4
The training says

“Opponents have a very carefully scripted narrative. They come prepared. You should also have a carefully scripted presentation that addresses those concerns ahead of time.”

From the guide, Chapter 1, quoting Flock's Real Time Strategist Jamie Hudson.

Springdale said

“The handout that's going around right now, what I would like to do is kind of lay the foundation with some facts, talk about what we do real quick, and then go through this walkthrough, and then answer any questions that you guys have.”

Chief Derek Wright. Springdale City Council, 1:55:36, August 25, 2026.

5
The training says

“Don't avoid the concept of mass surveillance because you're not going to convince opponents that it's not.”

From the guide, Chapter 2. Wording as published by 404 Media.

Springdale said

“You can disagree with that. You can disagree with the fact and think, well, it's an intrusion, and it absolutely is. It's not a Fourth Amendment violation.”

Chief Derek Wright. Springdale City Council, 1:55:48, August 25, 2026.

The advice is not to deny that it is surveillance. Concede the intrusion, then move the argument to legality. That is the shape of what was said.

6
The training says

“How to set up your Transparency Portal.”

Listed on the webinar page under What You'll Learn.

Springdale said

“We can even create a transparency portal for you, look something like this, where every search in the software that Chief and his team are going to do is auditable.”

Jordan, Flock representative. Springdale Police & Fire Committee, July 14, 2025.

Offered as an option, thirteen months before the Council was told about it. Nothing in the contract requires one.

7
The training says

“They brief city managers early. They meet with council members before votes occur. They share policies proactively and answer questions before public comment periods become the first introduction to the program.”

From the guide, Chapter 1, on how agencies that succeed approach councils.

Springdale said

“Thank you Mayor, there is definite interest. We are currently working on a grant to fund a project like this.”

Chief Derek Wright, replying to the Mayor about Flock's drone product. Email, July 22, 2026.

Four minutes after the Mayor forwarded him the vendor's pitch. No public meeting, no agenda item, no vote.

And this is where it lands.

It is a stewardship issue? Our crime rate was much lower before this Mayor.

“So it also turns into a stewardship issue for the public, when we have to spend taxpayer money to fix that kind of stuff. So it's incumbent — that's why I think we need more cameras in our parks.”
Mayor of Springdale Doug Sprouse. Springdale City Council, 2:33:14, August 25, 2026.

Join the fight against mass surveillance.

Find your ward and who to contact

Every statement, in full

Whether anyone from Springdale attended this particular session is not something we know. What is on this page is what the company sells, what its guide says, and what was said at a public meeting. The language they use and Flock’s leaked documents match.