City officials
What they have actually said.
In their own words, with the date and where they said it. Nothing paraphrased.
These are quoted in full so you can check them yourself. Two came in writing, directly to a resident who asked. The rest were said out loud at the Springdale City Council meeting on August 25, 2026, which the city recorded.
Derek Wright
Springdale Police Chief
“We do not have a copy of the agreement between Flock and AWS.”
“There are 142 city cameras integrated into Flock.”
“[There are] somewhere around 85 signalized intersections in Springdale, and I think we're at four or five of them. Which is obviously not a high percentage of our city's intersections.”
“I have heard the same thing, that they do have video capability in this. We don't use that, nor do we plan on doing that. And I think that's extremely intrusive, and that's not a path we're going to go down.”
“I do support additional guidelines and regulations through the legislature. I will be working with them this fall. I've already talked with a couple of them about some recommendations. There have to be guardrails in place so this isn't misused.”
“So I want to kind of explain what guardrails we've put in place, what's a little bit different.”
“And real quick, I do want to talk about misuse. I could not give you an exact number, but there are multiple in Northwest Arkansas and several across the country. So, they don't tell us that information, so I would just be guessing if I gave you an exact number.”
“State law only requires that we submit an audit to the state every six months of searches.”
“I will say that Flock has not done a very good job combating that. I think their PR strategy has been severely flawed, and I had an opportunity to tell them that the other day on a phone call.”
“And I'm completely out of my depth when I'm talking about computers, but this is something I've talked to Mark, our IT director, about, and it's extremely cost prohibitive.”
Doug Sprouse
Mayor of Springdale
“there can be huge differences in the way different cities handle their relationship with Flock, and the relationship with the data, how they store it, how people access it. And I believe we've got those safeguards in place. Now, with technology, there may be gaps that come up from time to time. They're identified, and we'll fix them then. But a lot of what people are assuming — that the information we get through those Flock cameras — is just not accurate.”
“So I agree that we need to have those guardrails in place. And the way technology changes — you know a lot more about technology than I do — but as technology changes, we're going to find those gaps. We're going to find somebody who accessed the system who shouldn't have, and they'll be fired, and if they've done anything illegal they'll be prosecuted. But in the meantime, you're right, the damage is already done.”
“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.”
“If you can see it from a public space, there's no expectation of privacy. And I believe the Supreme Court has upheld that. So, but we'll always do everything we can to protect the privacy of our residents.”
“I may have a different opinion about Flock cameras, or any kind of surveillance like that in public areas, until my grandchild's taken, until something happens to my family. And I think we need to at least balance those things from a public safety standpoint.”
Jordan
Flock Safety representative
“So Springdale owns all the data, so whatever data that you guys collect on these devices, it's your guys's, it automatically gets deleted in 30 days.”
“And then the last piece is there's no individual data associated with these at all, so no personal data, just vehicle descriptors and we try to make this as transparent as possible.”
“and then the camera's smart enough to follow any movement, whether it's a car or a person, to gather that evidence.”
“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.”
And the company
“our change in stance is more of one from building things that are optional to building more confidence that as a technology company we have a responsibility to enforce guardrails.”
The word guardrails appears in the Chief’s July letter, twice from the Chief at the August 25 meeting, once from the Mayor at the same meeting, and from Flock’s chief executive the same month.
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