Jackson County has spent $34,828.51 since 2024 on Flock Safety hardware, according to documents The Smoky Mountain News has obtained through public records request. 

In April 2024, the county entered into a five-year contract with the surveillance company for what is called the “Flock Safety Platform” which includes the Flock Safety operating system and license plate reader camera hardware and has an annual pre-tax cost of $11,000.

For reference, the Jackson County Sheriffs Office’s (JCSO) approved 2026-2027 budget is $8,420,845.

The county’s five-year Flock contract includes a one-time $1,300 service fee and has a total cost of $56,300.

JCSO also spent $750 to relocate one of their Flock cameras to a Flock pole in 2024, and $9,095 in 2026 for two “Falcon Flex Bundles” which include a location-flexible license plate recognition camera (two in total) “designed for fast, easy deployment,” according to Flock Safety marketing materials.

SMN has also determined from the county’s Flock expenditures that Flock Safety charges yearly subscription fees for both their hardware and the software products, meaning buying the physical Flock camera is not a one-time purchase; the $11,000 pre-tax yearly cost includes access to both the physical cameras and access to the operating system and databases.

Per the county’s Flock Safety order form, FlockOS has the following features:

  • Full access to all privately owned Flock devices within the jurisdiction that have been shared with JCSO
  • Unlimited users
  • Access to the “State Network” and “Nationwide Network” which allows agencies to look up license plates on all cameras opted into the statewide Flock network and the nationwide Flock Network
  • Time- and location-based searches
  • Vehicle fingerprint search, which allows users to search footage with Flock’s “Vehicle Fingerprint” technology, an AI-powered system that catalogues physical vehicle attributes beyond license plate numbers.
  • Flock insights/analytics, which the company describes as a reporting tool to help administrators manager their program with data analytics, user and network audits, plate reader reports, hot list alert reports, event logs, and outcome reports.
  • ESRI-based map interface, which are maps that offer 3-D visualization; floor plan views; layering of GIS data including city infrastructre; boundary mapping; and interior floor plans of buildings like hospitals, corporate campuses and universitates.
  • Real-time NCIC alerts, which notifies users anytime a vehicle entered into the National Crime Information Center database passes by a Flock camera
  • Unlimited custom “Hot Lists” 
  • Direct sharing with surrounding jurisdictions which allow access to all other Flock devices owned by law enforcement agencies that have been shared with JCSO

Jackson County also provided several other documents SMN asked for in an Aug. 11 public records request, including the location of the county’s four fixed Flock Cameras and the model of each camera.

The locations of the four JCSO-owned Flock cameras:

  • One on US-74 across the highway from Starlight Motel
  • On N.C. 107 near Cashiers Sotheby’s International Realty
  • On the Macon-Jackson County line on U.S. Route 23
  • On US 441 South across the highway from Rockhound Ridge Gem Mine and Rock Shop

JCSO also mentioned it has six total cameras, including two backup cameras which have not yet been deployed.

All JCSO Flock cameras are the Flock Safety Falcon model, which only have the capability to take still pictures of cars.

Some Flock Safety camera models can record video, use artificial intelligence to detect and follow people, and use listening features to detect loud noises. The Falcon model does not have those capabilities.

This information comes on the heels of recent SMN interviews with five out of six Jackson County Commissioner candidates who say they would vote to defund Flock in the county.