The Flock Camera Network in Baton Rouge Was Never Voted On By Anyone. Here's The Paper Trail
There's been a bit of chatter lately about the Flock Camera system in and around Baton Rouge.
The question isn't whether the cameras exist. It's how they got there without a single public vote, city council approval, or competitive bid.
Here's what the public record actually shows.
There's a nonprofit called the Louisiana Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Foundation (EIN 85-2555539). Chairman is a Baton Rouge marketing guy named Clay Young. Former interim BRPD chief Jonny Dunnam is their Vice Chairman and public face. Sheriff Gautreaux was at the founding press conference. The DA was there. The police chief was there.
This nonprofit has helped put over 100 cameras and license plate readers in East Baton Rouge Parish. Their own people said so to WBRZ on the record.
Now here's where it gets interesting.
I pulled their IRS Form 990 for FY2024 off ProPublica. It's public record. Go look yourself: search EIN 85-2555539.
What I found:
Line 24a under expenses, labeled explicitly: "CRIME/LPR CAMERA SUBSCR — $176,564"
That's a Flock Safety subscription. In their own tax filing. In their own words.
Now here's the loop that should make your blood boil:
- EBRSO is listed as a donor to this nonprofit
- The nonprofit takes that money — your tax dollars — and buys Flock cameras
- The cameras get donated back to EBRSO and BRPD
- No competitive bid. No city council vote. No public approval. Ever.
The Sheriff's Office gave money to a nonprofit that bought the Sheriff's Office surveillance equipment. That's not a donation. That's procurement laundering.
Under Louisiana public bid law, purchases above certain thresholds require competitive bidding. When a public agency needs equipment, other vendors compete, the public sees the contract, the price is defensible. None of that happened here because at no point did a public agency formally purchase anything. The money made a lap around the nonprofit and came back as hardware.
This may also violate Louisiana Constitution Article VII Section 14 which prohibits the gratuitous alienation of public funds.
Other fun facts from the 990:
- Revenue nearly tripled in one year from $430k to $1.138 million in 2024
- They're sitting on $1,022,966 in assets
- Zero independent audits. Ever.
- No conflict of interest policy
- No whistleblower policy
- No document retention policy
- $96,000 in management fees paid to an unnamed recipient
- All donor names legally shielded under Schedule B
The Inspiration Center at Howell Park is real and does real community work. Nobody's saying otherwise. But the same nonprofit running youth basketball is also running a no-bid surveillance procurement pipeline funded by the very agencies it's procuring for.
The cameras didn't appear because Baton Rouge voted for them. They appeared because someone built a structure specifically designed to make sure you never got to vote.
The 990 is public. Go read it yourself.
EIN 85-2555539 — ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer.
ETA
Someone in another thread asked about the EBRSO donation if public entities are not allowed to donate money and the donors names are private and unlisted:
The inRegister article from October of 2024 lists EBRSO along with the city of baton rouge and Exxon mobile as funding sources for LECJF.
While there is no direct proof of EBRSO laundering the purchase what we do know is this: EBRSO funds NPO, NPO buys LPRs, EBRSO and BRPD now have LPRs.
https://www.inregister.com/features/future-building-inspiration-center
"The City of Baton Rouge has contributed nearly $1.5 million, and along with donations from ExxonMobil, the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office and funding made available through the New Markets Tax Credit Program, LECJ has secured $9 million for the facility."
The article specifically points to the funding being for the building. However, it is illegal for any public entity to donate money to anyone for any reason. So if this article is correct, the funding is already suspect. The next question becomes what other money as flowed to and from and for what reasons?
Worth noting that many of the board members are active LEO, with staked interest in this. The secretary is Neal Noel whose address is listed as BRPD HQ 9000 Airline Hwy.
Even if direct tax dollars from EBRSO cannot be proven to have been used, what should be pretty evident if you dig is that this non profit finds funding for law enforcement equipment, whatever it may be, buys it no bid no vote, and gifts it to the agencies. That alone circumvents how this is actually supposed to work in terms of public accountability.