What the Sheriff's FOIA response actually shows.
On September 30, 2026 we asked the Monongalia County Sheriff's Office for its Flock network audit logs and its data-sharing configuration. On October 7 the production arrived: two datasets covering January through September 2026.
What we asked for, and what we got
The request asked for two things: the network audit logs (who searched Mon County's camera data, when, and why) and the data-sharing configuration (who is authorized to reach it, and under what agreements).
- Audit logs. Nine monthly CSV exports, January 1 – September 30, 2026: 3,049,590 search events across 13 recorded fields: searching organization, stated reason, case number, filters, search time, search type, text prompt, and moderation outcome.
- Sharing configuration. An October 2 export listing 838 organizations and their network-sharing relationships with Mon County's account.
- What doesn't exist. Asked for data-sharing agreements and MOUs, the Sheriff's Office answered: "Monongalia County Sheriff's Office has no responsive records." There are no negotiated agreements. Access runs on Flock's platform settings and standard terms.
- What was deferred. Retention settings were not produced; the response points back to Flock's transparency portal.
Headline findings
Every number on this page was computed from the raw CSVs with scripts kept in this site's repository, and can be recomputed on request. Where a finding has a table or a sample below, the finding links to it.
3,049,590 searches by 3,918 agencies
Over nine months, 3,918 distinct organizations ran 3,049,590 searches that touched Mon County's camera data. The transparency portal advertises 85 searches in 30 days. No subset of these logs reconciles with that counter in either direction: the portal counts the Sheriff's Office's own quiet usage, and the audit logs record the network's actual traffic.
14 documented shares, 3,918 actual searchers
The sharing export itemizes 14 organizations Mon County shares its network with: 12 in West Virginia, 2 in Pennsylvania. The audit logs show 3,918 organizations searching the data, and 3,181 of them have no entry in the sharing export at all, accounting for 77% of every search in the files. The access path the settings don't itemize is Flock's nationwide network: 99.8% of all searches are sweeps across 5,000 or more networks that include Mon County's cameras by default.
"A valid reason" means whatever the searcher types
The portal promises "all system access requires a valid reason." In the logs, 81.38% of searches carry no case-specific content whatsoever. "Investigation" is the stated reason 158,518 times. "Criminal Justice Purpose" (the search is its own justification) 95,435 times. A case number appears on only about a third of rows. Whether any stated reason is true cannot be checked from the logs.
The prohibited use is a top-five category
The portal prohibits traffic enforcement. "Traffic Infraction" is the stated purpose on 362,452 searches, 11.9% of everything in the files, and "City Planning/Traffic Analysis" (not law enforcement at all) on another 47,502.
Guardrails are prompts, not controls
When Flock's AI moderation blocked a West Virginia Fusion Center search for "motorcycle patch," the searcher reworded it to "motorcycle club" (warned), then "motorcycle" (allowed). The block held for 25 seconds. In nine months, moderation fired 16 times and blocked exactly once. The reason field, meanwhile, says "test" 8,466 times and "tbd" 487 times.
"No federal access," with an asterisk
Flock says no federal agencies have access. No FBI or ICE office appears in these logs under its own name. What does appear: federally funded HIDTA drug task forces (two entries literally tagged "[Federal]"), the West Virginia Fusion Center, and regional intelligence networks (MOCIC, NESPIN) searching Mon County's data. And no audit log anywhere can see an agent using a partner agency's account. "No federal access" is Flock policy, not contract; Flock can change it at will.
Top 20 stated reasons
This system is sold as making us safer, but the top two categories are victimless crime and traffic enforcement. You have to scroll to row 15 before you find a category involving violence against a person. Robbery is #21.
| # | Reason | Searches |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Drugs/Narcotics | 176,333 |
| 2 | Traffic Infraction | 147,742 |
| 3 | Wanted Person (Arrest Warrant/Fugitive) | 141,996 |
| 4 | Motor Vehicle Theft/Stolen | 116,708 |
| 5 | Larceny/Theft Offenses | 71,715 |
| 6 | Burglary/Breaking & Entering | 28,940 |
| 7 | Hit and Run/Car Accident | 28,596 |
| 8 | Missing/Endangered Person/Runaway | 26,740 |
| 9 | City Planning/Traffic Analysis | 26,653 |
| 10 | Drugs/Narcotics - Criminal Justice Purpose | 26,224 |
| 11 | Welfare Check | 25,312 |
| 12 | Stolen Property Offenses | 25,128 |
| 13 | Weapons Offense (Guns/Shots Fired) | 24,906 |
| 14 | Auto Theft / VCD Investigation | 24,721 |
| 15 | Assault/Battery Offenses | 24,706 |
| 16 | Traffic Infraction - Criminal Justice Purpose | 23,446 |
| 17 | Alcohol Offenses (Non-DUI) | 22,612 |
| 18 | Drugs/Narcotics - Investigation | 19,050 |
| 19 | Wanted Person (Arrest Warrant/Fugitive) - warrant | 18,230 |
| 20 | Obstructing the Police (Fleeing/Eluding) | 17,739 |
Top 20 searching agencies
Ranked by searches touching Mon County's camera data. No West Virginia agency cracks the top 50; this system exists to serve outside interests. The reach runs from Texas and Florida to railroad police, airport police, tribal nations, campus PDs, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
| # | Agency | Searches |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas Department of Public Safety | 92,073 |
| 2 | Houston TX PD | 88,895 |
| 3 | Dallas TX PD | 49,043 |
| 4 | Coweta County GA SO | 39,475 |
| 5 | Fort Worth TX PD | 37,274 |
| 6 | Kansas Highway Patrol | 34,966 |
| 7 | Hillsborough County FL SO | 33,046 |
| 8 | Lake County IN SO | 27,991 |
| 9 | Bay County FL SO | 26,415 |
| 10 | Atlanta GA PD | 24,217 |
| 11 | Oklahoma City OK PD | 22,866 |
| 12 | Jacksonville FL SO | 21,386 |
| 13 | Indiana State Police IN PD | 21,119 |
| 14 | Tulsa County OK SO | 21,078 |
| 15 | Volusia County FL SO | 18,564 |
| 16 | Lakeland FL PD | 18,563 |
| 17 | Montgomery County TX SO | 17,693 |
| 18 | Tulsa OK PD | 17,189 |
| 19 | Cherokee County GA SO | 16,282 |
| 20 | Sarasota County FL SO | 15,848 |
Samples from the production
Real rows from the audit logs, with row IDs so anyone holding the raw files can verify them. No private names are published here.
The 25-second moderation workaround
West Virginia Fusion Center, April 10, 2026. One search blocked, immediately reworded, and let through:
| Time | Text prompt | Moderation | Row ID |
|---|---|---|---|
| 05:40:31 PM | objectClass:vehicle motorcycle patch | block | 09913aed…cba75 |
| 05:40:44 PM | objectClass:vehicle motorcycle club | warn | a32900cf…107d |
| 05:40:56 PM | objectClass:vehicle motorcycle | allow | 025f49ed…1f2e |
Likeness searches
All 16 freeform text-prompt searches in the nine months of logs came from the West Virginia Fusion Center, and every one queries appearance: vehicle make, style, and affiliation markers like "motorcycle patch." Flock's FreeForm product markets searches by clothing, build, gender, and race; in this production, the appearance searches happen under crime categories like "Criminal Motor Vehicle Offense" and "City Planning/Traffic Analysis." In 13 of 16 rows, the logged category doesn't match the prompt at all.
Outside agencies, searching Mon County's cameras
| Agency | Stated reason | Networks searched | When (UTC) | Row ID |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Houston TX PD | Narcotics / Gang Investigation | 6,896 | 02/01/2026, 04:34 AM | 8cbf06bc…c856 |
| Texas Department of Public Safety | Criminal Motor Vehicle Offense | 6,193 | 02/01/2026, 03:46 AM | 2dda173e…0ee3 |
| Wichita Falls TX PD | Traffic Infraction | 6,943 | 05/02/2026, 11:01 PM | ac84ae3a…78c8 |
| Montgomery County TX SO | City Planning/Traffic Analysis | 6,942 | 06/30/2026, 08:03 AM | 99ebae86…1eb5 |
| US Virgin Islands | Robbery - Test | 5,696 | 01/30/2026, 08:36 PM | 148c7c86…5b13 |
| CSX Railroad PD | Trespass - Criminal Investigation | 5,905 | 01/24/2026, 12:26 PM | a266c08b…2a438 |
| Coweta County GA SO | Other - 37 | 6,120 | 03/01/2026, 04:20 AM | 11762de0…a137f |
Every row above is a sweep across 5,000 or more networks that includes Mon County's cameras. "Robbery - Test" and "Other - 37" are the stated reasons, verbatim.
Federal-task-force searches
Every organization name in the logs with a federal tag or a federal task-force name, 127 rows in total. Stated reasons are verbatim.
| Agency | Stated reason | Networks searched | When (UTC) | Row ID |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Midwest HIDTA | Drugs/Narcotics - criminal drug investigation | 5,745 | 01/29/2026, 04:41 PM | 46b63297…2313 |
| Midwest HIDTA | Drugs/Narcotics - ICE | 4,933 | 01/27/2026, 06:49 PM | 5655eac0…ea4a |
| Indiana HIDTA | Weapons Offense (Guns/Shots Fired) - Weapons trafficking | 5,965 | 02/11/2026, 07:29 PM | bfdcdb37…d386 |
| [Federal] Midwest HIDTA | Disorderly Conduct/Disturbance - Search on behalf of Edwardsville PD | 5,981 | 08/13/2026, 08:19 PM | 733165fa…956f |
| [Federal] Indiana HIDTA | Drugs/Narcotics | 6,148 | 08/07/2026, 01:44 PM | 569a9dfe…c5e |
Sources
- Monongalia County Sheriff's Office, Flock Safety Network Audit Logs, Jan 1 – Sept 30, 2026 (FOIA production received Oct 7, 2026; nine monthly CSV exports).
- Monongalia County Sheriff's Office, Flock Safety Network Sharing export, Oct 2, 2026 (FOIA production received Oct 7, 2026).
- Monongalia County Sheriff's Office, FOIA response letter, Oct 7, 2026 (V. L. Lipscomb, Grant Coordinator).
- Flock Safety Transparency Portal, Monongalia WV County SO (accessed Sept 20, 2026). transparency.flocksafety.com
- Flock Safety, Terms and Conditions (last updated Aug 21, 2026). flocksafety.com/legal/terms-and-conditions
Raw data available to Mon County residents upon request. The production is a public record under W. Va. Code § 29B-1-1 et seq. Email admin@deflockmonongalia.org and we will point you to it.