{"id":259903,"date":"2026-04-09T20:26:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T20:26:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/259903\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T20:26:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T20:26:33","slug":"community-voices-concern-over-flock-drone-surveillance-in-oakland-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/259903\/","title":{"rendered":"Community voices concern over Flock drone surveillance in Oakland County"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. \u2013 After a fiery meeting on Wednesday evening, the Oakland County Board of Commissioners voted 13-4 to approve a pilot program<\/a> that will allow drones to assist the Oakland County Sheriff\u2019s Office in responding to 911 calls.<\/p>\n

The proposal, called \u201cProject Prove It\u201d, is a nine-month pilot program between the Oakland County Sheriff\u2019s Office and Flock Safety, which will allow unmanned drones to assist deputies during emergencies.<\/p>\n

The pilot would be free for the first nine months. If extended, the program would cost $2.5 million over two years.<\/p>\n

The Oakland County Sheriff\u2019s Office already utilizes drones through its Drones as First Responders (DFR) program<\/a>. The vast majority of those calls are related to mental health crises or locating missing persons, and the drones are only activated after a 911 call is made.<\/p>\n

Residents packed the meeting to speak against the proposal, with some pointing to other communities that have ended relationships with the company.<\/p>\n

Tensions escalated after commissioners moved public comments after the vote, prompting outrage from attendees.<\/p>\n

The board adopted an amendment intended to address data ownership, specifying that after the nine-month pilot, all data collected through the program will remain the property of the sheriff\u2019s office and will not be retained by Flock Safety.<\/p>\n

Even with the amendment, many residents said they still have concerns about how data would be stored and protected.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that the data can be hacked from Flock regardless of whether it\u2019s sold or if the law enforcement organizations are the only ones that have access to it,\u201d said Rochester Hills resident Marion Brumer. \u201cI think that collecting that data should be a concern regardless of who has it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s absolutely no way that they can make a guarantee that this data would be safe,\u201d said Clarkston resident Jenna Lindsay.<\/p>\n

Flock Safety maintains it has never had a data breach<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Flock Safety provided the following statement to Local 4:<\/p>\n

\u201cFlock\u2019s Drone as a First Responder (DFR) program helps agencies respond to emergency calls more quickly and safely, with drones typically arriving on scene in about 90 seconds, often before officers.<\/p>\n

In practice, this allows departments to assess evolving incidents, track suspects without vehicle pursuits, search for missing persons, and provide real-time intelligence to improve decision-making.<\/p>\n

On data security: all video and flight data are encrypted in transit and at rest.<\/p>\n

Access is limited to authorized personnel at the Sheriff\u2019s Office, and all access is logged and auditable. <\/p>\n

Flock customers own all the data collected through the DFR system, including images, video, and metadata.<\/p>\n

Drone flight logs are publicly available via a dashboard designed to support transparency and accountability. <\/p>\n

Until a drone reaches the location of a call for service, its camera remains forward-facing to limit field of view and reduce potential privacy concerns.<\/p>\n

For questions about specific use cases, we would defer to the Oakland County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

In general, DFR programs are used for defined emergency situations, such as 911 calls, active incidents, and missing persons, not for general surveillance.<\/p>\n

The system can also support other first responders, including fire departments responding to structure fires, major accidents, and water rescues.”<\/p>\n

Flock Safety<\/p>\n

The Oakland County Sheriff\u2019s Office also provided a statement regarding the pilot program.<\/p>\n

\u201cDrones are used for responding to specific calls and incidents. We have a transparency dashboard where every drone as first responder flight is listed, what the call was for, and the route it took.<\/p>\n

We have a very specific privacy policy to protect the public from even accidental intrusion by requiring that the camera be turned up towards the sky as the drone returns to base after completing a call for service.<\/p>\n

We have been doing drones as first responders for over four years. Other agencies approached us about expanding our existing program, and this is a pilot to examine that possibility, save taxpayers money, and share resources.<\/p>\n

Drones are most often utilized for search and rescue, being deployed multiple times per week looking for lost children or people in a mental health crisis.”<\/p>\n

Oakland County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. \u2013 After a fiery meeting on Wednesday evening, the Oakland County Board of Commissioners voted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,904,145,144],"class_list":{"0":"post-259903","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-oakland","9":"tag-oakland-county","10":"tag-oakland-headlines","11":"tag-oakland-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}