A Carbon County man continues to forge ahead in his quest to have Flock cameras that he says are installed in the Lehighton area removed.

Noah Bryfogle, of Palmerton, addressed Mahoning Township supervisors last week about what he claims is the township’s mishandling of its public records.

Bryfogle said the township pays Flock Safety $18,000 per year for its camera system. In 2023, when the deal initially went through, he said this only cost taxpayers roughly $11,000, as Flock only charged $15,000 for the cameras and the township used a grant from the state to pay some of the cost.

In 2025, though, when the contract renewed, Bryfogle said Flock increased its price and there was no state grant to rely on, so the township pays the full $18,000 for the system. He also noted that Pennsylvania Unified Crime Reporting data doesn’t show any difference in reported crimes from the time the cameras were installed in the township.

In response to his first Right-to-Know request, he said the township refused to release any agreements between it and other municipalities, such as Lehighton, stating the record does not exist, adding that he did obtain an intergovernmental agreement between the township and Lehighton Borough from Lehighton, though, so it’s unlikely that the township didn’t have a record of the agreement while Lehighton did.

“When I requested specifically the agreement between Lehighton and Mahoning, the township cited RTK 708(b)(2) and 708(b)(3), which are public security exemptions. Note again that Lehighton and Franklin both handed over similar agreements without citing any security exemption. The township also failed to provide a precise reason for why releasing the record would be a security concern, which is legally required per the RTKL.”

Bryfogle said that during the meeting, the township introduced their new counsel, who, in the following days, emailed him the record and informed the Office of Open Records that they had done so during an appeal. “This means I now obtained a copy of the agreement from the township, but only after their lawyers told them they weren’t going to get away with keeping it to themselves.

“The township also withheld records relating to security audits, physical installation locations of the cameras, and access control lists,” he said. “They argue none of those records exist, which is pretty concerning if true; the township installed such a powerful security tool and doesn’t even know who can access them or where the cameras are.”

Bryfogle said that in response to his second request, which included a more precise request for the locations, the township responded “they do not maintain any records that identify the physical installation locations. They are maintained by Flock. Regardless of this, the request falls under the above exemptions. That would require the creation of a record which does not currently exist; and is therefore denied.”

Bryfogle said, “This response is, for a lack of better words, nonsense; the township cannot utter in the same breath that the records both do and do not exist and, if the records do exist but are under Flock’s ownership, the township is still obligated to provide those records per RTK Section 506(d).”

Appeals

Bryfogle said his second request included a request for the Flock Master Contract, which was also denied with the reason, “copy of the license agreement with Lehighton Borough falls under the above exemption.”

“That is not a valid reason; the township states they refuse to hand over the Lehighton license agreement, though that isn’t even the record I requested.

Bryfogle said he informed the township and the public that he filed two appeals with the OOR.

“I asked the township to improve its handling of public documents since citizens should know how the tools their tax dollars pay for are being used,” he said. “I also asked the township to reconsider its contract with Flock Safety.”

Earlier this month, Bryfogle addressed Lehighton Borough Council about the topic and discussed the automated license plate readers that photograph passing vehicles.

Bryfogle said at that time there were at least 18 that he knows of in Carbon County, about 15 of which are in the Lehighton area.

He noted at that time there are two cameras on borough land, one of each are run by Mahoning and Franklin townships.

Bryfogle said the borough has license agreements for both of these cameras, and urged the borough to rid itself of them.

He told borough council that the borough’s cooperation with this matter would be huge.

After that meeting, Bryfogle said he has been filing Right-to-Know public records requests to select municipalities of Carbon County (Lehighton, Franklin Township, Mahoning Township, Weissport, Jim Thorpe, Weatherly) to find out about their ALPR systems and how they are being used.

Bryfogle said each township is paying roughly $3,000 per camera annually, plus installation and maintenance.

Bryfogle has started up a website at https://deflockcarbon.org/progress that he said contains all of the public records he has received, as well as the contents of his requests.