As Anderson County officials consider the future of Flock cameras, Clinton continues to examine its own use of the license plate readers, but has made no changes to the program.
The cameras have generated debate at multiple Clinton City Council meetings, with Police Chief Jim Campbell providing additional details Aug. 24 about how the city uses the technology and safeguards the information it collects.
The discussion has taken on broader significance as Anderson County officials wrestle with many of the same questions surrounding privacy, data sharing and the cameras’ value as a law enforcement tool.
Anderson County held a public hearing on Flock cameras Sept. 10, with 31 residents speaking against their use.
County Mayor Terry Frank said after the hearing that she wants the county to end or pause its use of the cameras while questions surrounding the technology and policies governing it are addressed.
Clinton, meanwhile, continues to operate eight Flock cameras.
• Theft — Clinton police responded to Walmart, 150 Tanner Lane, at 2:52 p.m. Sept. 7 after a report of theft of property/shoplifting. The case is active.
• Theft — Officers responded to a McAdoo St. address at 9:21 p.m. Sept. 9 after a report involving fraudulent use/illegal possession of a credit/ATM card and stolen property offenses. The case is active.
• Auto theft — Clinton police responded to 110 Tanner Place at 11:08 a.m. Sept. 10 after a report of motor vehicle theft. The case is active.
• Theft/burglary — Clinton police responded to 1 Hoye St. at 9:01 p.m. Sept. 13 after a report of burglary. A suspect was listed as a subject in the incident and the case is active.
• Vandalism — A deputy responded to Clinton Highway in Powell on Sept. 14 after a Flock camera near Raccoon Valley Road was reported damaged.
According to the report, the camera had been moved and its power cord cut. Deputies determined the camera was no longer receiving power. No suspects were identified at the time of the report.
• Property damage — Deputies responded to a business on Lake City Highway in Clinton on Sept. 15 after damage was reported to the floor of a refrigerated loading dock.
The complainant told deputies the damage occurred while a delivery was being unloaded. Deputies reviewed photographs and determined the wooden floor appeared to have several areas that had been repaired or patched previously. The damage was estimated at less than $500.
• Driver cited — An Anderson County deputy stopped a vehicle on Offutt Road on Sept. 15 after reportedly observing it traveling 72 mph in a posted 50 mph zone on Lake City Highway.
This former Hensley’s IGA supermarket building on Andersonville Highway could soon become the home of the new Church at Anderson Crossing, if the city of Norris approves a zoning change. - G. Chambers Williams III
A Baptist church based in Knox County wants to open a satellite location in a former supermarket building on Andersonville Highway in Norris, and the property’s current owners will appear before the Norris Planning Commission on Oct. 5 to ask for a zoning change to allow the church.
The Church at Sterchi Hills on Dry Gap Pike plans to build a 400-seat auditorium in the former Hensley’s IGA building in the Anderson Crossing area at the corner of Andersonville Highway and Norris Freeway (U.S. 441), said Robbie DeJarnette, the church’s administrative and groups pastor.
“We’re looking to purchase it and plant a campus there,” he said. “We have deep roots in Anderson County, and this is a chance for us to come home. We’re excited about it.”
DeJarnette, a former campus pastor for Faith Promise Church in Clinton and a former member of the Anderson County Planning Commission, said that he and the church’s lead pastor, Dr. Joel Dew, are from Anderson County. Dew’s mother lives in Norris, he added.
The church’s plans to buy the 3.99-acre property depend on the site’s current owners, Ken Seaman and Dave Moore of Powell, getting city of Norris approval to add religious establishments to the list of allowed uses in the city’s current C-2 commercial zones. That’s the zoning now in effect for the parcel.
Commission sends disputed contract back to committee
by G. Chambers Williams III
One of Clinton’s eight Flock license-plate reader cameras that monitor traffic in the city. Four cameras are positioned near entrances to Clinton and face inward, photographing the rear of vehicles entering the city. Four others are posi- tioned near Clinton schools. - Ben Pounds
Anderson County’s contract for Flock license-plate-reader cameras is headed back to the county Budget Committee after officials determined the current agreement was not properly approved.
The County Commission voted Monday, Sept. 21, to send the contract to the Budget Committee, which is scheduled to consider it at 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 8.
Flock cameras have faced criticism in Anderson County and elsewhere, but county Law Director James Brooks stressed that the issue before commissioners was not whether the county should use the cameras. Instead, he said, the issue was whether the current contract had been properly approved.
“I don’t want you to get hung up on the phrase ‘Flock camera,’” Brooks said. “It’s a contract. And the contract did not meet the requirements.”
Brooks said the county could properly ratify the contract, allow it to remain void, or send it to the Budget Committee for further discussion. Commissioners chose the third option.
In response to a question from county Mayor Terry Frank, Brooks said the Flock program would pause.
