West Virginia House committee threatens subpoena as Flock Safety disputes claims it stalled on written answers

Event: October 11, 2026 · First reported: October 11, 2026 · 1 source

Members of the West Virginia House Government Organization Committee sent an October letter to Flock Safety's chief legal officer saying the company had not fully answered 19 written questions first submitted on Aug. 14, 2026, and raised the possibility of using the committee's subpoena power. The questions followed an Aug. 9 legislative interim meeting and covered security incidents, unauthorized access, data sharing, ALPR accuracy and false positives, employee access controls, and data governance. Lawmakers said closed-door briefings were not an acceptable substitute for written responses; Flock spokesperson Paris Lewbel said the company had already given nearly two hours of public testimony and 10 pages of written answers and had repeatedly offered to meet to supplement, not replace, them.

Why this matters

The exchange tests whether a state legislature can obtain detailed, on-the-record information from a private surveillance vendor whose systems are already deployed by local agencies, and it may shape how other states structure oversight of ALPR contracts.

Key facts

The Oct. letter was signed by Chairman Chris Phillips, R-Barbour, and members Tristan Leavitt, R-Kanawha; Patrick Lucas, R-Cabell; and Ryan Browning, R-Wayne.
Lawmakers questioned testimony by Flock government affairs director Kevin Kane about when two-factor authentication became mandatory; Flock's Dan Haley wrote that the feature began as a defaulted-on option and later became mandatory, and that the recent announcement was the final rollout step.
Flock submitted written responses Sept. 1; lawmakers called them incomplete or unclear on Sept. 3 and set a Sept. 17 deadline, after which Haley offered a meeting instead.
Monongalia County contracted with Flock for 20 ALPR cameras, and Huntington signed a five-year, $2.1 million contract for more than 40 ALPR cameras, live video, gunshot detection and other technology.
The Institute for Justice maintains a database of more than 100 incidents of alleged ALPR misuse by law enforcement; the ACLU and IJ have raised transparency and accountability concerns.

Sources

This summary was written from the published reporting below and links to it; BlockFlockNow does not reproduce article text.

W.Va. lawmakers, Flock Safety representatives spar over information requests (The Intermountain, October 11, 2026)

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About this record

BlockFlockNow documents reported incidents involving Flock Safety cameras and automated license plate readers: council votes, contract decisions, misuse by authorized users, lawsuits, audits, and community response. Every record is reviewed by a person before publication. New to the topic? Start with What is Flock?, find meetings near you, or learn how to request your town's camera records.

Updated October 14, 2026. Corrections: blockflock@bytebunny.io. See all documented incidents or search the full article archive.