Thank you to all who came out last Wednesday but it seems that the commission and the sheriff do not want to listen to their constituents. Citizens were met with disdain, slander and lies.

Tom Bloom singled out a woman and told her to watch her tone and everyone speaking was doing so as mob mentality.

NO TRANSPARENCY. NO TAKING RESPONSIBILITY. NO FOIA REQUESTS RESPECTED.

Do NOT allow Tom Bloom or Todd Forbes bully and lie to you about flock cameras. They will not respect the community's or your rights until they are pressured to do so.

The Sheriff's department requested up to $180,000 of opioid settlement money to use for these flock cameras. Commission approved and signed over $60,000 of this opioid settlement money for a three year contract with Flock around November 2025.

Opioid settlement money won from companies that pumped this state full of drugs and left the most vulnerable addicted and torn apart. Why is this money being used on surveillance and not rehab? Or to help communities destroyed by opioids?

The cameras are up. We demand transparency.

We demand FOIA on the contract signed and how and when the data is used or accessed.

Commission meets every Wednesday at 10am.

EDIT UPDATE with info requested:

What is flock?

Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs or LPRs) are AI-powered cameras that capture and analyze images of all passing vehicles, storing details like your car's location, date, and time. They also capture your car's make, model, color, and identifying features such as dents, roof racks, and bumper stickers, often turning these into searchable data points.

These cameras collect data on millions of vehicles regardless of whether the driver is suspected of a crime. These systems are marketed as indispensable tools to fight crime, but they ignore the powerful tools police already have to track criminals, such as cell phone location data, creating a loophole that doesn't require a warrant.

ALPRs are a serious risk to your privacy and civil liberties. These systems continuously record your movements without a warrant, probable cause, or even reasonable suspicion. Your driving history is rarely confined to the town or city where the cameras are installed. It's typically shared with thousands of other agencies nationwide (secretly). Once the data is out of your community, you have no control over how it's used or what rules apply, leading to instances of misuse.

You can learn more about flock and view the interactive map to find cameras in your area at deflock.org

Photo credit: Torli Bush and Michael Bowman

Wednesday, July 1st 10AM at Monongalia County Courthouse

Come tell the County Commission how you feel about their decision to spend YOUR opioid settlement funds on Big Brother surveillance. They need to know we're upset, and that we want this rolled back.

Commissioner Tom Bloom has consistently shifted the onus to the Sheriff, who has been historically and conveniently unavailable to talk about the use of the surveillance devices. When anyone has deigned to speak about it, they give the same tired excuses that we've come to expect. This is not enough. We deserve better from our elected representatives. No one should have to live in a panopticon, and West Virginians are no exception.

(I am not the original poster, please find them on instagram @morgantownfnb and @runoutofwit)