HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — There’s mixed reaction from southern West Virginia elected officials about the City of Huntington’s recent $2.1 million contract agreement with the Flock Safety company.
A heated city council meeting last week ended with a 6-4 vote in favor of the contract. More than 50 people told city council members they were against the contract, citing concerns over what the technology will be used for.
Flock Safety is a surveillance camera company that utilizes artificial intelligence in many ways, including through license plate recognition software.
Huntington Mayor Patrick Farrell defended the city’s decision to enter into the contract.
“What we are trying to do is cover all the ingress and egress points out of the city, so that we can track those violent criminals and drug dealers that are coming in,” Farrell said on MetroNews “Midday” last week. “The preliminary look at that is that we’re going to need 46 license plate reader cameras, 17 live cameras, two drones, and then we’re going to cover two areas with the gunshot (audio) detection.”
Farrell said the city is targeting violent crime and drugs with this contract, and he said it’ll have a “real impact” in cracking down on illicit activity.
Not long after the contract was approved by Huntington City Council, the ACLU of West Virginia announced it was joining two firms to file a suit in Cabell County Circuit Court against it. The suit contends that the officials didn’t follow the proper city code processes before approving the contract.
Farrell said there’s no credence to that claim, as much is still yet to be decided.
“I think they put the cart before the horse,” Farrell said. “My understanding in the lawsuit is that they have some questions about our camera locations and city right-of-ways, saying that we didn’t seek the permission of city council before the camera location was decided or given to them. And my response is that (last) Monday night was step one of many.”
Huntington City Council member Tia Rumbaugh was one of the “no” votes. She joined MetroNews “Talkline” recently to discuss her decision. Rumbaugh said she found lots of “red flags” after reviewing over a hundred pages of contractual lease papers and was concerned about how expensive the investment will be. Additionally, she said Flock doesn’t have the cleanest of records.
“Flock itself as a vendor is under pending litigation all across the country,” Rumbaugh said. “There’s been many, many lawsuits against it as an entity around our country. It is the company with the scarlet letter on it right now.”
“I don’t think that our city needs to get in a relationship with a company that is documented as being as unethical as Flock,” she added.
Rumbaugh said one of the red flags that she noticed was that the Flock Safety-City of Huntington contract would be housed online, which meant that it could be changed at any time. She said that there wasn’t much time to review the contract, either, as she received her copy the Friday before the marathon Monday-into-Tuesday meeting.
She also said the wording of video footage was alarming in the contract, referring to it as “footage” rather than “personal info.” That opens the door, she said, for Flock to share the video footage with third parties, advertisers, and more.
Farrell pointed to people’s distrust in government and artificial intelligence as to why there’s been backlash over the contract. He said while they can’t go and complain to the “CEO of Google,” but they can express their frustration with local leaders.
“They don’t like AI, and that makes them feel bad because they’re scared of job loss,” Farrell said. “I think that that outcry comes from people that very sincerely have that anxiety about their civil liberties, about their privacy, about job loss, about Big Brother, about constantly being tracked and access to their data. This is how they’re expressing it, at the local level, which is where they can.”
The Flock Safety system features the kind of tools that the police department is asking for, Farrell said.
“We want to stop violent crime and drug crime,” Farrell said. “We’re not interested in any kind of Big Brother system. We’re not interested in taking away people’s civil liberties or making them feel creepy because of some surveillance. We what we do want to do is make sure that that drugs stay out of our city.”
Nearby in Barboursville, Mayor Chris Tatum took to social media to say Flock cameras will not be allowed under his leadership. Tatum joined MetroNews “Midday” to explain his stance.
“It’s not that we’re against policing for safety purposes, but there are so many questions that surround this particular type of surveillance,” Tatum said.
Tatum mentioned that, through lawsuits and otherwise, some cities are learning that Flock Safety is having some issues with its data mining. He said that there have been some incorrect arrests because of errant facial recognition through the Flock system.
Tatum also questioned the demand for the cameras. He said most business and property owners already have cameras, so those systems can be utilized for criminal investigations. If the Flock system is installed and all public areas are monitored, he wondered where that fell constitutionally.
In neighboring Putnam County, the sheriff’s office is making its views clear. Sheriff Bobby Eggleton announced in a social media post that the office is not going to activate its Flock Safety cameras. The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office began a contract with Flock in June 2025, but Eggleton said the system has not been activated — and won’t be until more research is conducted.
“I didn’t want them to feel like that any government entity was watching them, you know, ‘Big Brother watching you,'” Eggleton said on MetroNews “Midday.” “So, I wanted to just back off of it to make them comfortable until we can probably better either educate ourselves, educate the public.”
Eggleton said he was initially convinced by Flock Safety’s pitch for all the good it could do.
“Flock has a lot of evidence in their sales pitches talking about how these things have helped solve crimes, find missing people, do things like that,” Eggleton said. “That was the sole reason where we were even going to do it. But technology, whether it be AI — I’m not very educated on AI — technology is something we can use to benefit the public.”
Rumbaugh said there may be other businesses that she would support giving the surveillance camera contract to, but there was too much against Flock Safety to deny. She said whenever the City of Huntington has to make a big purchase, there’s usually a big process where the company’s history is considered and the most cost-effective option is sought after.
“That type of vetting is normally handled by our purchasing department, and for whatever reason, our administration did not consider other vendors,” Rumbaugh said, “and, as far as I can tell, did not do that type of vetting on this particular organization.”
Rumbaugh said she’s already heard from some people since the decision was announced, telling her that they’re not going to visit Huntington because of this.
“Folks are scared and have said in hundreds of comments that I’ve received and emails, et cetera, saying, ‘I’m not going to come to Huntington anymore. I don’t want to come to downtown,'” Rumbaugh said. “They don’t need to be surveilled.”
“We assume that we are not being surveilled if we’re walking down the street, right?” she said. “We think that no one’s listening to us.”
Rumbaugh said that would completely change under Flock Safety surveillance.
Eggleton echoed the desire not to be watched by the government or any entities during everyday life.
“As just a citizen, I don’t want Big Brother watching me either, and that’s one of those things in our freedoms (provide),” Eggleton said. “I don’t believe this particular case is a Fourth Amendment problem, but I do understand people’s concerns.”
One silver lining that Tatum identified out of the outcry has been a solidarity from residents, no matter their political affiliation. Tatum said this should show people that they still can work together, even in an era of extreme division.
“As much of a divide as there is right now, all of these people, no matter how upset and mad they get, we’re all not that far apart because we all want what we think is in the best interest of our community,” Tatum said. “It doesn’t mean that there has to be vitriol and spewing of venom.”