Dunwoody Mayor Lynn Deutsch says a private April meeting with Flock Safety's CEO produced three concrete changes to how the surveillance company handles the city's camera network, including ending the use of Dunwoody data for commercial sales demos.
Deutsch disclosed the concessions for the first time in a written response published Tuesday, Aug. 11, by the Dunwoody Crier, answering a letter from resident Jason Hunyar that challenged the meeting's secrecy. The exchange marks the mayor's most detailed public accounting of the April 9 sit-down with Flock CEO Garrett Langley at Perc Coffee.
What Flock agreed to
According to Deutsch's letter, the April 9 meeting yielded three policy changes:
- Flock will no longer use Dunwoody cameras or data for commercial demonstrations or sales purposes.
- The system now requires multifactor authentication.
- Restrictions on outside agencies' access to Dunwoody's cameras and data have been "significantly" tightened.
"I had my own questions about who can access the data, and how and why searches are conducted," Deutsch wrote.
The secrecy dispute
Hunyar, who obtained text messages between Deutsch and Langley through open records requests, argues the meeting was improperly left out of the mayor's remarks at the April 13 City Council meeting. At that session, Deutsch told the council "the inference that we're doing something behind door… it's all kind of not at all correct... we haven't done any of this in secret."
Four days earlier, she had met Langley at a coffee shop she chose specifically outside Dunwoody, according to the text messages Hunyar obtained.
Deutsch pushed back directly: "A private meeting is not a secret meeting."
AI training question unresolved
Hunyar's letter raises a separate concern. As quoted in his letter, Deutsch told the council on March 23 that she opposed Flock using Dunwoody data for AI training, saying "there's a bazillion communities using these technologies, you can test it somewhere else." But Hunyar says text messages from April 9 show discussion of the city manager signing off on that very use. Deutsch's published response does not address this allegation.
What's at stake
Dunwoody operates roughly 80 automated license plate readers and 25 live-view cameras through its Flock contract, which costs approximately $500,000 a year. As we reported Aug. 8, the City Council deferred renewing the bulk of that contract after organized resident opposition over privacy and immigration enforcement concerns. No date has been set to revisit the decision.
Deutsch defended the technology's role in public safety, citing its use in solving the murders of two teenage brothers and investigating scams targeting older residents.
Hunyar's letter also notes that on April 16, multiple city employees dined with Flock representatives at Little Alley Steakhouse, and phone records show Deutsch attempted to contact Langley again that same day. Hunyar says he does not know who paid for the dinner.
The council's next step on the deferred $500,000 contract remains unscheduled.
