Edgewood residents can read their police chief's answers about the city's paused Flock Safety license plate reader cameras, after the city posted the document on the city website Oct. 12.
The Q&A, based on research by Police Chief Jimmy Kreinest and information from Flock Safety, addresses data ownership, retention, speed tracking and December 2025 audit-log changes that exposed law enforcement records nationwide. The cameras have been inactive since Aug. 31, when Mayor John D. Link ordered a temporary pause pending a council review.
Council member Jeff Schreiver compiled questions from fellow council members and gave them to Kreinest, who consulted with Flock Safety before writing his responses, NKY Tribune reported. The council then decided to make the answers public.
What the Q&A says
Edgewood's cameras operate on a 30-day data retention window. License plate images, timestamps, locations and vehicle characteristics are automatically and permanently deleted after that period, according to the Q&A. Flock's published default retention is seven days, but agencies can configure longer periods under their contracts.
The department owns its data. Flock states it does not sell agency data, and outside organizations, including other Flock customers, cannot access Edgewood's information without the department's permission.
One limited exception exists: fewer than 1% of images may be copied into a separate training dataset to improve system accuracy. Flock states identifying information linking those images to Edgewood is removed, and the training set cannot be searched for a specific vehicle or plate.
On speed tracking, the Q&A states Flock collects speed data only when an agency purchases its Traffic Analytics product. If Edgewood has not purchased that product, Flock holds no speed data from the city's cameras.
December 2025 security incident
The Q&A also addresses a platform-wide data exposure in December 2025. Records from an Evansville, Indiana police search were publicly released, exposing undercover officer names and license plates tied to active investigations, according to the Q&A. The Evansville Courier & Press reported on the underlying incident. Flock responded by automatically redacting certain information in its Network Audit logs across all customers.
Flock lists ISO 27001 certification and a SOC 2 Type II audit report, according to the company's security portal. Department administrators can verify the retention setting through Flock's administrative portal, the Q&A states.
What's next
The Edgewood City Council did not make a final decision on the cameras at its Oct. 5 meeting, where four residents spoke against the system, citing Fourth Amendment concerns. Chief Administrative Officer Brian Dehner said at that meeting that license plate readers do not violate the Fourth Amendment because the Supreme Court has held that anything visible to the public is not a privacy violation, NKY Tribune reported.
The topic is on the November agenda. The cameras remain off.
In his Sept.1 community statement announcing the pause, Mayor Link wrote that the city could strongly support its police officers while asking reasonable questions about the technology used to keep Edgewood safe.
