# Chief Helton RTCC Defense Thread On March 5, 2026, Little Rock Police Chief [[Heath Helton]] forwarded a Fortune Magazine article about the national "de-flocking" trend to Lt. [[Courtney Bewley]], who manages the department's [[Real-Time Crime Center (RTCC)]], copying Assistant Chief [[Micheal Miller]] and Major [[Jonathan Prater]]. In his cover note Helton anticipated public criticism of the RTCC and directed his command staff to keep compiling data showing that the department uses its surveillance systems "professionally and ethically." The thread is a rare candid, command-level view of how LRPD leadership framed the legitimacy and public-relations posture of its surveillance program in the middle of a national news cycle hostile to [[Flock Safety, Inc.]]. ## What's inside The record consists of a single internal LRPD email (subject line "Article") with the full text of the forwarded Fortune article reproduced beneath it. The Fortune piece, by news editor Catherina Gioino and dated March 3, 2026, reports that cities across the United States were cancelling or suspending Flock contracts in the wake of an Amazon Ring Super Bowl advertisement and growing privacy concerns, and it quotes Flock spokespeople responding to the criticism. Helton's cover message states that the article reached him through a law-enforcement professional channel rather than from Flock itself. ## Key takeaways - Helton's cover note frames data compilation as a defensive posture against RTCC critics. He wrote: "I'm sure we will hear about this from some of those who see no value in the RTCC. Let's make sure we continue to effectively compile our data to show how we're utilizing our systems professionally and ethically. I appreciate your leadership and expertise in managing the department's RTCC. I encourage you and your team to keep up the great work." (Emails 25-35.pdf p. 405, "I'm sure we will hear about this from some of those who see no value in the RTCC. Let's make sure we continue to effectively compile our data to show how we're utilizing our systems professionally and ethically.") - The email identifies the sender, recipients, and routing of the thread. (Emails 25-35.pdf p. 405, "From: Helton, Heath / Sent: Thursday, March 5, 2026 8:10 AM / To: Bewley, Courtney / Cc: Miller, Michael; Prater, Jonathan / Subject: Article") - Helton states he received the article from a law-enforcement professional source, not from Flock. (Emails 25-35.pdf p. 405, "I got this article sent to me this morning from PERF (Police Executitve Search Forum) [sic]. It was published a couple of days ago in Fortune Magazine.") - The forwarded article reports broad cancellations and the scale of Flock's footprint. (Emails 25-35.pdf p. 406, "Cities from Flagstaff, Ariz., to Windsor, Conn., have joined more than 30 other cities across the country that have either suspended, if not fully terminated, their partnership with Flock."); (Emails 25-35.pdf p. 405, "is active in more than 5,000 U.S. cities"). - The article describes Flock's default contract terms, which several agencies pushed back on. (Emails 25-35.pdf p. 407, "bypassing Flock's default clause, which grants the company a 'worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free' license to disclose agency data for 'investigative purposes.'") - The article preserves Flock's denial of federal-agency contracts. (Emails 25-35.pdf p. 407, "We do not have any contracts with any of them, which means they cannot directly access data on the platform.") - The article references the open-source tracking app DeFlock.org. (Emails 25-35.pdf p. 407, "The open-source app DeFlock.org recently launched to track the location of more than 77,000 AI license-plate readers across the country"). ## People and orgs mentioned - [[Heath Helton]] — Chief of Police, LRPD; author of the cover email. (Emails 25-35.pdf p. 405, "From: Helton, Heath"); the email signature block identifies him as "Chief Of Police" with the LRPD line (Emails 25-35.pdf p. 407, "Heath Helton ... Chief Of Police ... Little Rock Police Department"). - [[Courtney Bewley]] — addressee; the note credits her leadership of the RTCC. (Emails 25-35.pdf p. 405, "To: Bewley, Courtney"; "I appreciate your leadership and expertise in managing the department's RTCC.") - [[Micheal Miller]] — Assistant Chief; copied on the thread (printed in the record as "Miller, Michael"). (Emails 25-35.pdf p. 405, "Cc: Miller, Michael") - [[Jonathan Prater]] — Major; copied on the thread. (Emails 25-35.pdf p. 405, "Cc: ... Prater, Jonathan") - [[Flock Safety, Inc.]] — the surveillance vendor at the center of the forwarded article. (Emails 25-35.pdf p. 405, "cutting ties with license-plate reader Flock") - [[Little Rock Police Department]] — the agency whose RTCC the thread concerns. - The forwarded article also names third parties outside this investigation's scope (a Ring spokesperson, a Flock spokesperson, Flagstaff Mayor Becky Daggett, Ring CEO Jamie Siminoff, and the article's author Catherina Gioino); these are named here only as they appear in the cited article text. ## Concepts invoked - [[Real-Time Crime Center (RTCC)]] — the program Helton instructs staff to document and defend. (Emails 25-35.pdf p. 405, "those who see no value in the RTCC") - [[Surveillance Data Sharing — Default-On Posture]] — implicated by the forwarded article's description of Flock's standard data-disclosure clause. (Emails 25-35.pdf p. 407, "Flock's default clause, which grants the company a 'worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free' license to disclose agency data") - [[Federal LE Data-Sharing Pipeline]] — implicated by the article's reporting on, and Flock's denial of, federal-agency access. (Emails 25-35.pdf p. 407, "We do not have any contracts with any of them") - [[Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR)]] — the underlying technology the article describes. (Emails 25-35.pdf p. 405, "scans license plates and uses integrated video tools to log plates, time, and location") - [[Hot List]] — the matching mechanism described in the article. (Emails 25-35.pdf p. 405, "alerts police when a vehicle matches a 'hot list'") ## Events documented - 2026-03-05: Chief Helton emails RTCC command (Bewley, cc Miller and Prater) forwarding the Fortune article and directing continued data compilation. (Emails 25-35.pdf p. 405) - 2026-03-03: Publication date of the forwarded Fortune article reproduced in the record. (Emails 25-35.pdf p. 405, "March 3, 2026, 1:49 PM ET") ## Cross-references - [[Federal Data-Sharing Controls and Federal-Access Posture]] — Flock's federal-contract denial in this article pairs with the production's federal-access material. - [[Flock Audit and Compliance Controls and Gaps]] — Helton's "compile our data" directive bears on how LRPD documents and audits its own system usage. - [[LRPD FOIA Handling and Disclosure Posture]] — the same production's disclosure context; this internal command email surfaced through PDFOI-2026-1874. - [[Flock Deconfliction Advisories and the LRPD Sharing Network]] — a Flock Deconfliction Advisory (target plate not reproduced here) immediately follows this email in the production at p. 409. ## Open questions / follow-ups - The "data" Helton directs staff to compile is not itself contained in this production; what metrics or usage reports the RTCC compiled in response cannot be verified from this record. - Whether Bewley, Miller, or Prater replied to the thread cannot be verified; no reply appears in this production. - The OCR renders the assistant chief's name as "Miller, Michael"; the canonical entity spelling in this wiki is [[Micheal Miller]]. The discrepancy is an OCR/source-spelling variance, not two distinct people, but the precise official spelling is not independently confirmed in this record. - Helton attributes the article's source to "PERF (Police Executitve Search Forum) [sic]"; the parenthetical expansion as printed does not match the common expansion of PERF (Police Executive Research Forum), and the record does not resolve which body he meant.