From the meeting video
The August 4 work session is on tape (the recording), and the exchanges after the presentation carry more than the coverage did.
- How the network bargain works, from the sheriff. Asked whether the county can get plate data from other agencies, Farmer answered that sharing Jackson County’s own data is the only way to receive theirs (1:31:23). That is the account-level trade at the center of How Camera Networks Share Data, described by the person operating it: receiving requires giving.
- The sharing number, settled. Asked whether the county’s data is shared with other entities in the state, Farmer answered yes, 200 agencies (1:31:14), matching the Smoky Mountain News report. The presentation deck is still worth requesting for its other numbers.
- The recurring cost was not to hand. On the in-car Axon plate readers, Farmer put the hardware around $3,000 for the first two units and $3,500 for another. Asked the annual fee, he said there is one but could not say the amount (1:31:59). No one in the room had the recurring figure, which is the number a budget decision would turn on.
- A concern about tracking, pressed harder than the coverage suggested. A commissioner told the sheriff that entering a tag to track a person who has not been convicted of anything would, in their view, violate that person’s rights; Farmer’s answer was that someone who wants to track you will find a way to track you (1:33:05; the recording does not identify which commissioner is speaking).
- Pay, twice in one recording. During public comment, a candidate for local office argued the Flock money would do more good in deputy pay and retention (0:23:02). An hour and a quarter later, answering a different question, Farmer said the office is short-staffed, with about a dozen openings, and that the last six people to leave all left over pay (1:40:12). Neither speaker connected the two statements. Putting them side by side is our observation; the recording simply contains both.
- How investigations actually run, in the sheriff’s own examples. Farmer said the office does not go straight to Flock, and described the Cashiers bank robbery, solved by pulling business camera footage along NC 107 with no suspect vehicle to search for; he also described a gun-theft case where a Flock camera did catch the suspect (1:19:25). Both examples are his.