Activists, officials react to Marshall County Council vote to defund Flock contracts

MARSHALL COUNTY, Ind. -- The Marshall County Council's decision to defund its Flock camera contracts for 2027 is a moment that is prompting strong reactions from both activists and county officials.

Laura Brockway is the organizer of the grassroots movement "Get the Flock Out of Marshall County."

"It feels like a great victory, it's really just a small step but that's how these victories happen," says Brockway.

The $20,00 contract would have come out of the county prosecutor's budget. Instead - it ended up at zero.

"After a lot of thinking, deliberating, research, I just decided that at this point I think it would be best for us to eliminate the funding for our cameras," says Republican councilwoman Nicole Cox.

Cox is the one who made the inital motion. She says she learned about another Flock contract the county is three years deep into - on top of the one commissioners just recently voted to no longer renew automatically.

"We can't take the cameras down, we don't sign the contracts, but we get the opportunity to fund things and that's our way of being able to have a checks and balances system," says Cox.

Marshall County Prosecutor Nelson Chipman tells ABC57 that Flock is an important subject to be debated - but not off what he calls intentional misinformation. In part, he stated the following:

To defund a required payment on an existing lawful contract and to do it during 2nd reading of the entire county budget ordinance, is irresponsible governance. I thank the three councilmen that voted with common sense to see how Flock and its users continue to evolve within the law as the courts continue to evaluate its constitutionality.

One of those three councilmen, Greg Compton, feels that Flock is integral to public safety - and a tool for law enforcement.

"There's been murderers caught, there's human trafficking stopped, kidnapping, a child was kidnapped here in Marshall County and a Flock camera helped catch it," says Compton

Whereas Cox has concerns with privacy and the rapid advancement of AI in the future. She and Compton both agree that, if the county were to use Flock again, it must come with safeguards.

"I think if we did have an audit system and maybe even some state regulations to make sure that Flock is properly using their data," says Compton.

"For now, I would feel better until we know for sure that we're going to have some really solid guardrails put in place and we know that even from a state and federal level, I would prefer not to have them in our county," says Cox.

Councilwoman Cox says it is now on the county commissioners to decide what is next for Flock; should they want to keep it, they can renegotiate a contract and come back to the council with another funding request.

In the meantime, Brockway tells ABC57 that she and other activists plan to attend the next commissioners meeting on September 21 to formally request they cancel the current Flock contract.