Cookeville's police chief confirms that there have been discussions between the Cookeville Police Department and Putnam County Sheriff's Department about establishing a real-time crime center in the city, but says there are currently no plans in place to build one.
"Sheriff Farris and I have discussed the creation of a real-time crime center and how it would enhance our law enforcement efforts," Police Chief Scott Winfree said. "A real-time crime center incorporates several resources into one location, one of which could be live video feeds, both publicly and privately owned. Incidents can be documented and disseminated to law enforcement in a timelier manner, leading to faster apprehension of offenders."
Winfree's email also clarified the department's policy on automatic license plate readers.
"The automatic license plate readers we utilize do not capture video," Winfree said. "They merely take a still image photo of a vehicle and its license plate at a point in time. The product we use has a 30-day retention of these photos before they are purged. The only time we retain an image is if it is evidence in a criminal case."
As previously reported in the Herald-Citizen, Putnam County Sheriff Eddie Farris said in a June interview on Hub Plus' Good Morning Cookeville that one of his goals in the next four years was establishing a live crime center similar to what many bigger cities across the country have. He said such a center could be located in the South Jefferson Avenue area off of Interstate 40 to help combat potential criminals coming in from larger cities. He said he would also like to eventually expand to a similar center at the South Willow Avenue exit.
According to an article on law enforcement technology company Axon's website, the first such center was established in New York City in 2005. Since then evolving technology has made it easier for law enforcement agencies to establish centers and made using the data collected more intuitive.
"Where an RTCC once required a dedicated physical command center and constant monitoring by staff, modern solutions can be accessed in the field by the officers who need them most," the article said. "Effective real-time crime centers cast the widest possible net when gathering information. With all these different data sources, it’s vital to bring them all together in a single-pane-of-glass that can employ automation to highlight what matters."
The article said RTCCs help make communities safer before crimes are committed by creating an "ecosystem" of information through camera surveillance, license plate readers and computer aided dispatching, among other technologies, to distill information into a "single pane of glass" that can help officers quickly highlight important information.
At least one Cookeville resident has expressed concern over rising surveillance coming into the community. At a city council meeting earlier this month, Katelyn Searcy said despite the positives that LPRs bring, there are potential drawbacks that need to be considered.
"I'm not here today to argue about their effectiveness or their place in our community,” Searcy said. “I think everyone here can agree that in the case of an Amber alert, being able to identify a specific vehicle like that is an incredible asset for us to have. What I did want to speak on, was I think a lot of people have concerns and I just wanted to bring attention to the specific things I would appreciate our city government watching out for specifically with these contractors.
Searcy said for her, at least, the capacity of the cameras to identify individuals is where the technology becomes questionable.
“I just want us to be aware they can do individual identification,” Searcy said. “I feel like that rides the line a little bit."
As automatic license plate readers have proliferated throughout the nation, through companies like Flock and Axon, both individuals and public policy groups have highlighted potential civil rights infringements that can arise, especially when the different forms of surveillance, including live video feeds from both public and private sources, police body camera and license plate readers, can be fed into artificial intelligence and used for “predictive policing.”
“Advances in AI are beginning to shift policing from a reactive to a more proactive model,” one study said. “Rather than simply documenting crimes after they occur, AI systems are beginning to alert first responders to early warning signs before violence breaks out. For example, some tools can detect subtle, irregular body language, like a person pacing outside of a school with a heavy bag. Others analyze social media activity to identify escalating gang conflicts or signs of mental health crises, giving authorities the chance to intervene or connect people to services before situations turn violent.”
However, according to the study, an incident in New Orleans where a “suspicious” individual was apprehended and wrongly accused of a crime highlights one of the drawbacks of the system.
“On a chilly morning in January 2020, 25-year-old Michael Celestine stepped out of his friend’s house in New Orleans,” the study said. “Wearing a white Tommy Hilfiger puffer jacket, he spoke briefly with a friend, smoked a cigarette, and then went back inside — all of which took less than 15 minutes. What Celestine didn’t realize was that, a mile away, the New Orleans Police Department was observing and recording his actions from the city's Real Time Crime Center. The officer reviewing the footage deemed Celestine 'suspicious,' and a nearby patrol car responded. Released body camera video shows Celestine being chased down, tased and arrested. He spent more than a year in custody before his criminal charges were ultimately dismissed.”
Lawmakers both at the state and local levels in Tennessee are scrutinizing the growing use of surveillance. Last month, Knox County halted the deployment of almost 300 Flock cameras across the county and legislation has been introduced in Congress to prevent federal funds from being used on license plate readers.
In the wake of concerns over who can access information from license plate readers, the town of Monterey is preparing to move from Flock readers to Axon readers. At a Law Committee meeting Monday, Lt. Andrew Neff said one of the reasons the Monterey Police Department is wanting to make the change is the rising cost of Flock, but he said there are also data concerns, as well.
In a May 2026 blog post, Flock itself said it was possible to misuse its technology, and that over the last eight years, more than 6,000 agencies have reported misconduct related to its license plate readers.
“Oftentimes in reported cases, the officer was identified because Flock systems create tamper-proof audit logs that record who searched what, when, and why,” the post said. “Those logs helped investigators uncover misconduct, support prosecutions, and hold officers accountable.”
In defense of its system, Flock said there are several other systems used by law enforcement that can be misused, including DMV records, investigative reports and national crime databases. The company suggests that those forms of data could be more sensitive than license plate data and places an emphasis on accountability at the local level to battle misconduct.
“Public safety tools only work when the people using them are held to a clear standard of accountability,” the post said. “Officers are entrusted with these systems because they have taken an oath to serve and protect their communities. When someone violates that trust, whether involving Flock or any other system, they should be investigated and held accountable.”