KNOXVILLE — Knox County Commission voted Monday to order the removal of all roughly 140 Flock Safety license-plate cameras currently operating in the county, giving the sheriff’s office 30 days to comply. Three days earlier, the sheriff’s office filed its own paperwork: a state grant application requesting funds for 270 additional cameras.
The removal order targets a 2020 contract Mayor Glenn Jacobs has said was priced $10 under the $100,000 threshold that would have required Commission approval in the first place, and which he contends technically expired in 2024. The grant application does not reference the removal order, the contract dispute, or the existing 140 cameras at all; it treats the county’s camera count as currently zero.
“We’re not really removing cameras and adding cameras,” said procurement coordinator Brenda Loy, who processed the grant paperwork Thursday under the Vendor Displeasure Matrix’s newest tier, Compliance, Pending. “We’re removing a specific set of cameras and adding a different, larger set of cameras. Those are two different projects. I checked.”
KCSO grants coordinator Wendell Sikes, who signed the 270-camera application, said the number reflects “projected coverage gaps,” a phrase he declined to define beyond noting that 270 is roughly double 140. Asked whether the coverage gap in question was the one the removal order was about to create, Sikes said he would need to check with legal and ended the call.
Commission had earlier floated a resolution to shun Flock’s chief executive at his next Rotary Club appearance, a measure that stalled after nobody could confirm the executive belonged to a Rotary Club. The removal order carries no such ambiguity: it names the cameras, sets a deadline, and says nothing about what replaces them.
KCSO says the grant decision is expected by October.