Wichita suburb again considers Flock cameras. What nearby cities already use them?
Three years after rejecting Flock surveillance in Bel Aire, the north Wichita suburb is revisiting the topic.
“To me it makes sense to support our PD having those tools. It is our expectation that they utilize that technology correctly. . . . There is no expectation of privacy on public roads, and that’s where these would be installed,” council member Tyler Dehn said at the May 5 City Council meeting, where a letter of support for Flock cameras from Police Chief Darrell Atteberry was read. The cameras also were discussed at an April workshop.
Flock cameras are automated license plate readers that police departments can use to help find suspects. If Bel Aire moves forward with Flock, it would join Wichita and several suburbs in using the cameras.
The police chief’s letter, read by Mayor Jim Benage, said out of Bel Aire’s 996 criminal cases in 2025, a suspect vehicle was likely involved in about 20%.
“These numbers highlight a measurable gap in investigative capability . . . Access to vehicle-based data in these cases could significantly improve the speed and effectiveness of investigations leading to suspect identification and stronger case outcomes,” the chief’s letter read.
Benage, who would not have a vote if Flock is brought to the council, told The Eagle that he opposes having Flock cameras in Bel Aire. He said protecting the privacy of residents is more important than what the cameras could assist with.
“We have a right against unreasonable searches and seizures, and (Flock cameras) to me is unwarranted surveillance,” Benage said.
“(These are the) kind of things that we have to balance as elected officials to make sure that we’re protecting citizens’ rights.”
Chief Atteberry told The Eagle that he would not speak about Flock cameras right now, but said if the city brought in the cameras, the police department would use the software in “the legal and lawful way it is intended.”
City Council members Mike Proctor and Dehn both spoke in favor of the cameras in May.
“I’m in support of it. I think our PD needs the help,” Proctor said.
“This isn’t going to replace good police work, but it does provide a tool that will provide leads, but good police work is still required using those leads,” Dehn said.
Council member Emily Hamburg voted against Flock surveillance when it failed 3-1 in 2023.
“We all live here and want safety for ourselves, our families, and our property and for law enforcement to effectively and efficiently provide their services,” Hamburg told The Eagle via email. “I don’t believe collecting the movements of every single Bel Aire resident and storing and sharing that information through a 3rd party vendor like Flock and with other agencies is an appropriate trade off for doing that.”
Benage said he hasn’t heard a strong sentiment from residents one way or another.
“I just know there are many citizens that are opposed to it (and) we have some citizens that are OK,” Benage said. “I could not say based upon citizen input the way we should go.”
While no binding action was taken, city council members spoke in favor of holding a workshop where they could discuss the issue further. But more than a month after the topic was discussed, the workshop has not been scheduled.
“We’re going to be focusing on (budget) workshops, (and if) we have time, we’ll maybe pick it up,” Benage said. “We know about all controversial issues. They end up consuming a lot of time. We gotta be very careful about that, and not take that up in a time that we don’t have the time to spend on it.”
Benage said no matter what, he is not concerned with the safety of Bel Aire’s residents. He cited a report from Safewise that ranked the suburb as the fifth safest city in Kansas.
“We’ve maintained the (top 10) for a long time . . . and we intend to continue to do that whether we have this tool to help us do that or not,” Benage said.
What other Wichita-area towns have the cameras?
The use of Flock cameras is not rare in Wichita suburbs.
Haysville, Derby, Maize, Andover, Valley Center, Goddard and Park City are among the Wichita-area cities that use Flock cameras, while multiple other towns have access to Wichita’s Flock system and data.
“The Sedgwick County area as well as surrounding communities have a sizable amount of Flock cameras which significantly helps with information sharing,” Goddard’s police chief Lance Beagley told The Eagle via email. “It also provides our city planning with analytics and the amounts of reads which helps with traffic studies and planning ... non-law enforcement staff do not get access, just analytics numbers I can share with them.”
Flock cameras have not been without controversy.
In 2022, a Kechi police lieutenant was arrested after it was found that he used Wichita’s Flock network to track the whereabouts of his estranged wife. He was sentenced to 18 months of probation and lost his police certification.
Flock responded to this incident when it occurred, telling The Eagle that it is “the job of our elected and appointed officials to hold law enforcement agencies accountable to local and state laws that govern the use and misuse of policing technology.”
More than 100 law enforcement agencies in the state have contracts with Flock.
