u/drewbuntu42

Sunflower Privacy Alliance is helping bring the Brushfires of Freedom Tour to Derby, and I wanted to promote the event on this sub since you've been so supportive of my work.

What: A live presentation on the surveillance tools quietly showing up in our daily lives, from Flock Safety cameras on street corners to Clear Force tracking employees around the clock to Palantir compiling dossiers on ordinary people. Dr. Jon Padfield will walk through the threats, then dig into what we can actually do about them, including tools like FOIA requests that everyday people can use to push back.

When: Monday, August 10, 6:00 PM

Where: Community Room, Derby Public Library, 1600 E Walnut Grove, Derby, KS 67037

Cost: Free. This whole tour is self-funded by Dr. Padfield, so there's no ticket and no ask, just a chance to connect with people who care about the same things you do. Donations are welcome but never expected.

There will be plenty of time for Q&A, both during and after the talk, and Dr. Padfield is looking for input and ideas from people doing this work locally, which is exactly what our coalition has been building toward here in Kansas.

If you've been following my work on Flock cameras and KORA requests, this is a great chance to meet other people fighting the same fight, in person.

I just wrapped up an acoustic-to-electronic conversion on my Ludwig Breakbeats by Questlove and posted my first impressions video. I wanted to play it completely stock before adjusting anything on the Roland TD-17, just to see where the baseline was.

Honestly surprised at how well it played right away. The one hiccup was a rack tom trigger that wasn't sitting quite right. Pretty sure it's an installation fix on my end.

Happy to answer any questions about the build in the comments. Full parts list in the video description if anyone's curious!

https://youtu.be/ArROAtkHJjQ

https://preview.redd.it/zjdnqhb1lb5h1.jpg?width=3482&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1308df552d25b2a9458164b7ef5fe3a129bc778e

I made a brief appearance at the May 12 Wichita City Council meeting (video here, starts around 30:10) to report out on where things stand with my KORA request for Flock audit logs and implore the Council to put pressure on WPD. Here's the full picture for anyone who hasn't been following.

What I asked for

Back in April I submitted KORA request #26-2178 to WPD asking for records documenting how officers and other agencies are actually using the Flock system: login and session records, query logs with case justifications, Flock Insights/Analytics audit reports, permission change logs, and a list of outside agencies that have been granted access to WPD's camera network.

How the city responded

WPD denied most of it. For items 1, 3, and 5 (the access logs, analytics audits, and outside-agency access records), they cited undue burden under K.S.A. 45-218(e), claiming it would take hundreds of staff hours to review and redact entries at a rate of two minutes per entry. They also invoked K.S.A. 45-221(a)(55), the discretionary exemption for Flock vehicle and tag data.

They did agree to produce item 4 (records of user permission changes and account modifications) for the unreasonable price of $50, which I reluctantly paid.

My appeal

I filed a request for reconsideration and pointed out a few things. First, there's a math problem in the denial: for item 4 they estimated 2.5 hours to process ~8,000 entries, which works out to about 1.1 seconds per entry, not 2 minutes. If the burden estimate for the other items is based on the same audit log system, the department owes a better explanation for why those records are so much more labor-intensive.

Second, I cited a publicly available contract between Flock and the City of Dunwoody, Georgia, which includes a provision requiring Flock to pre-redact sensitive fields in audit reports before they're turned over in response to public records requests. That's not a Wichita-specific clause, but it's evidence that Flock has the technical capability to produce a redacted export without anyone at WPD having to touch individual entries. I asked whether the city had even contacted Flock to find out if that option existed here.

The city's final response

They went back to Flock. What they found out is that one week of network audit data contains over 130,000 entries, and April alone had over 500,000. Their position is that even with Flock's involvement, the records still contain criminal history information that requires manual review and can't simply be auto-redacted. The request was denied again and closed. Why they can't simply exclude plates that appear on their "hot list" is beyond me, but perhaps I'll bring that up in a future request.

So that's where it sits. I'm evaluating whether to escalate to the Kansas Attorney General's office. The 500,000-entry figure for April is notable in its own right. I'll have more to say about that in a future post.

On the national front

Two stories worth your attention this week, pulling in opposite directions.

The bad news: 404 Media reported that the FBI is seeking to purchase nationwide access to ALPR data, potentially allowing the agency to track vehicle movements across the country in near real-time. The only vendors that could realistically fulfill that contract are Flock and Motorola. If you've been wondering how local camera networks connect upward, this is the answer. And you can bet if the FBI obtains access to the data they'll be sharing it with other federal agencies (DHS, CBP, ICE, DEA, ATF, you name it).

The good news: Wired reported yesterday that a bipartisan House amendment has been proposed that would bar any recipient of federal highway funds from using ALPRs for any purpose other than toll collection. One sentence. If it passes, it would effectively force states and cities to shut down their ALPR programs or forfeit federal road money. It's a long shot, but it exists, it has bipartisan support, and it's in a highway bill — which is exactly the kind of leverage that could actually move the needle.

Upcoming dates

• Thursday, May 28, 6-8 PM: Sunflower Privacy Alliance meeting, Conference Room C, Advanced Learning Library. No registration required. PM me if you want a Teams link.
• Monday, August 10: Dr. Jon Padfield, Brushfires of Freedom Tour, Advanced Learning Library. This is a live presentation covering Flock cameras, ClearForce employee tracking, Palantir, and more. Details to follow.
• Saturday, August 15: Political activism training. PM me for details.
• August 16-22: DeFlock's National Week of Action Against ALPRs. Nothing locked in locally yet, but there are a few things being worked on. Register nationally at NOALPRs.com.

To get on the SPA email list: join.privacyks.org. (This replaces the kansas.watch list, which I've migrated over, so no need to sign up again if you already did so.) You can sign the petition at sign.privacyks.org. (This one is new and geared more toward the audit logs than the financing questions. Please sign again even if you previously signed the one at kansas.watch.) The forum is at discourse.privacyks.org. In addition to being an old-school, message board style forum, this is where I've been posting more detailed updates on KORA requests including links to the actual documentation. If you want access to those links, PM me or join the Discourse server. The main site got a significant overhaul recently. Check it out at privacyks.org. We're still working toward 501(c)(4) status. First-year costs run about $700, so if you'd like to contribute: ko-fi.com/kansaswatch. Genuine thanks to everyone who already has.

Posts from me will probably stay sparse for a while. Full-time job, software startup, Congressional campaign, and this work don't leave a lot of free time for watching the NBA playoffs and upcoming World Cup games. But I'm not going anywhere. If you have ideas for the Week of Action or just want to talk, shoot me a PM. I've made a number of really great connections through Reddit already, and I appreciate all the support folks here on the Wichita subreddit have shown me.

Quick update on everything that's happened over the last couple weeks since the community here has been so supportive.

April 28 public comment

My friend Brad Heagler addressed the city council on Tuesday regarding cybersecurity concerns around Flock. He did a solid job laying out the risks in plain terms. Worth a few minutes of your time.

Following his comments, Council Member Joseph Shepard introduced himself to both of us. I've followed up with him since and we're in dialog. I'm not going to overstate it, but having a council member reach out is a different posture than what we've seen so far, and I appreciate it.

I'll be speaking again at the May 12 council meeting.

KORA update

I filed a records request a while back seeking audit log data on Flock searches. Got a partial response back. The city agreed to produce some records and charged $50 for them. They denied other portions of the request. I've filed an appeal and forwarded both the city's response and my appeal to Council Members Shepard and Hoheisel so they have the full picture.

The audit log question remains one of the more important pieces of this puzzle. More to come on that.

Academic outreach

I had a conversation with Professor John Francis at Washburn University's law school about Fourth Amendment issues related to automated license plate readers. Really appreciated his time and perspective. He was a wealth of knowledge and had a lot of interesting insights regarding recent cases that could be pertinent to ALPRs and surveillance more generally.

I also have a call scheduled with Professor Andrew Ferguson from George Washington University. If you're not familiar with his work, he's one of the leading national experts on predictive policing, facial recognition, video analytics, big data surveillance, the Internet of Things, and the Fourth Amendment. He's written four books including Your Data Will Be Used Against You: Policing in the Age of Self-Surveillance (2026) and The Rise of Big Data Policing: Surveillance, Race, and the Future of Law Enforcement. Looking forward to that conversation.

Kansas Watch and Sunflower Privacy Alliance Reorganization

A few people have asked how these two things relate to each other, so I wanted to provide some clarification.

Kansas Watch is where I will continue to research, write, and publish. It will also continue to host the ALPR Abuse Library. The Sunflower Privacy Alliance is the civic organizing side or "activism arm" of things. We are working on setting up a proper 501(c)(4), and SPA will continue to host meetings, public events, petition drives, and activism training.

Sunflower Privacy Alliance website is live

You can find us at privacyks.org. From there you can get to:

• The Sunflower Underground, our Discourse discussion forum at discourse.privacyks.org
• The Sunflower Sentinel, our blog at blog.privacyks.org
• The new petition at sign.privacyks.org
• The mailing list / contact form at join.privacyks.org

If you've been watching from the sidelines and want to get more involved, any of those are good places to start.

On my congressional run

For those who haven't seen it: the Libertarian Party has nominated me to run for Congress in Kansas's 4th congressional district. You can find my campaign page at drew4kansas.com.

I know not everyone reading this shares my politics across the board, and that's completely fine. But on the surveillance question specifically, this should be an easy one for people across the spectrum. Worth noting that our current representative, Ron Estes, voted to extend FISA provisions.

Upcoming events

The next Sunflower Privacy Alliance meeting is Thursday, May 28, from 6 to 8 PM. Send me a private message for the location and/or Microsoft Teams link.

DeFlock will be hosting a National Week of Action on ALPRs. Visit NOALPRS.com to register.

On August 10, 2026, Dr. Jon Padfield will be speaking at the Advanced Learning Library here in Wichita. His presentation covers everything from Flock cameras to ClearForce tracking employees in real time to Palantir compiling data on basically everyone in the country. He'll also be sharing practical tools and tips people can use to protect their own privacy. His framing is "make privacy normal again." More details to come as we get closer.

The Sunflower Privacy Alliance will also be hosting a political activism training on Saturday, August 15, 2026. Email info@privacyks.org or send me a private message if you want more information.

I'm happy to answer questions in the comments. We don't have an official donation page up yet for the Sunflower Privacy Alliance as the 501(c)(4) is still in formation, but you can support Kansas Watch at https://ko-fi.com/kansaswatch (many thanks to those of you who have already donated!).

UPDATE: Fixed typo because spelling is hard.

A lot has happened since my last update. Here's a full rundown.

Mark Barlow at City Council (April 21)

Mark did a phenomenal job speaking before the council. I would encourage you to watch his comments, and if you happen to reside in District 99, consider voting for him for Kansas State House.

ALPR Abuse Library Now Has Its Own Home

The ALPR Abuse Library has migrated off GitHub and now lives at library.kansas.watch. Same content, easier to share and reference. If you have cases to submit, there's a Google Form intake on the site.

Academic and Legal Interest Growing

A Professor of Law at George Washington University has expressed interest in discussing surveillance issues with me, and I'll be meeting with a professor at Washburn to discuss first amendment issues pertaining to my KORA requests and explore legal resources there as well.

Sunflower Privacy Alliance Update

We're in contact with the Kansas Alliance for Nonprofits as we work through the 501(c)(4) formation process for the Sunflower Privacy Alliance. More on that as it develops.

Flock Squawk: A Podcast in the Works

I've registered flocksquawk.com as a home for a potential podcast. A friend with professional recording equipment has volunteered to produce it. The plan for the inaugural episode is a casual conversation between me, Echo Waters, and Mark Barlow. Long-term, the show would be part news/current events, part interview format. Nothing to announce yet, but the pieces are coming together.

Sedgwick County KORA Response

Got a response back from Sedgwick County on my open records request (cost me a $25 USB drive). Key takeaways:

• They do not currently have any operational Flock cameras, but expect installations later this year.
• The cameras will be funded through the Sedgwick County Sheriff's Office budget, not through grants.
• No agency policies for Flock cameras are currently in place; they expect to have a policy ready once the cameras go live.

The absence of a policy before deployment is worth noting. You can review the KORA documents here: https://cloud.drewbuntu.net/index.php/s/HQWqFyCHenbJga7

April 23 Coalition Meeting Recap / What's Coming

We held our coalition meeting on April 23. It was a small but dedicated group that we hope will continue to grow. The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, May 28, from 6-8 PM. If you want to join our private Discourse server or attend the next meeting, send me a PM. My only requirement for the Discourse server is that you're not a cop or in any way affiliated with any government agency (at any level). We will try to host the May meeting on Microsoft Teams for those unable to attend in person. Again, send me a PM for the link.

Upcoming speaker schedule at Wichita City Council public comment:

• April 28 — Brad Heagler
• May 5 — Drew Cranmer
• May 12 — Echo Waters
• May 19 — Mark Barlow
• May 26 — Faith Martin
• June 2 — Drew Cranmer
• June 9 — Echo Waters
• June 16 — Mark Barlow
• June 23 — Open

We're also planning a political activism training session on August 15, and Dr. Jon Padfield will be speaking at the Wichita Advanced Learning Library on August 10 as part of his Brushfires of Freedom Tour.

If you're interested in national ALPR activism, check out NOALPRs.com for info on the DeFlock National Week of Activism.

One More Thing

I went to the Kansas Libertarian Party State Convention in Wichita on Saturday. I was there to talk about Flock Safety and surveillance accountability. I wasn't expecting what came next: they nominated me for the 4th District US House of Representatives seat.

I'm still processing it, and in all honesty I probably won't be doing much "active" campaigning, but if you want to learn more, you can find me at drew4kansas.com or drew4kansas on Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

As always, thanks for following along. There's a lot of ground being covered and more to come.