Carrie McCormack, a public‑affairs manager for Flock Safety, told the Lynn Haven City Commission that the company’s license‑plate reader system is designed to support investigations while protecting privacy, saying images are encrypted, owned by the community and deleted after 30 days unless downloaded for an investigation.

The presentation and a two‑hour public question-and-answer session that followed drew multiple residents who urged the commission to “deflock” the city, citing alleged misuse, past incidents of unauthorized camera access and potential integration with private Ring doorbell systems. “Flock does not sell data,” McCormack said. “The community owns the photos taken in Lynn Haven, and they are hard‑deleted at 30 days unless downloaded for a police investigation.”

Why it matters: Residents described the cameras as an intrusive surveillance tool that can be misused by insiders or combined with other networks; commissioners said they want stronger policies and transparency tools before expanding or modifying use. Speakers raised both procedural concerns about how Flock was originally authorized in 2021 and technical concerns about access and auditing.

Flock’s presentation summarized how LPRs work: the cameras capture a single image of a vehicle’s rear, recognize a license plate and can generate alerts only if a plate is placed on a department’s “hot list.” McCormack cited studies and examples of cases where LPRs helped find suspects or missing people and said the company supports audit trails, multi‑factor authentication and a public “transparency portal” communities can enable.

But public commenters amplified a long list of concerns: Naylor Bearclaw said Flock systems have been linked in press reports to Ring and other networks and recounted an instance of a camera feed being accessed; Laura Lehi and David Switzer cited cases outside Florida where officers allegedly abused access to LPRs to stalk or wrongfully target residents.

Commissioners pressed Flock on specifics: whether data can be shared with neighboring agencies, how audits work, whether two‑factor authentication is enforced, what happens when cameras are compromised and whether the company maintains other products (drones, wider data‑fusion platforms) that Lynn Haven does not currently use. McCormack said the city controls its sharing settings, that multi‑factor authentication is the default for about 97% of users and that those other products are not deployed in Lynn Haven.

The public affairs representative offered the company’s policy team to work with the city on written procedures and a transparency portal. Commissioners and staff repeatedly said the next steps should include updating or strengthening city policy, enabling audit access and deploying a transparency portal so searches, reasons and sharing partners can be visible to the public.

What’s next: Commissioners asked staff to pursue clearer policy language and technical configurations for the system; the Flock team committed to follow‑up meetings to assist with policy development and portal setup. The commission did not take additional formal action on Flock that night.

Representative quotes: “Flock automatically deletes the data after 30 days unless it is downloaded for an investigation,” Carrie McCormack said. “We encourage any time there’s misuse that it be fully investigated under the laws of that community.” Resident Naylor Bearclaw said, “Be mindful of the Fourth Amendment. Be mindful of what you're asking for.”

Ending: The presentation closed after robust public questioning and an offer from Flock to engage further on policy; commissioners signaled they will pursue written policy updates, auditing access and a transparency portal before any expansion of capabilities.