Gann Warns Legislators of Dangers of Woke Law Enforcement Proposal

By Oklahoma State Representative Tom Gann

Oklahoma State Representative Tom Gann is encouraging his colleagues to stay alert. He believes lobbyists are preparing a late-session push to greenlight what he calls the dangerous rise of “woke,” AI-driven law enforcement.

“Powerful lobbyists for a prominent big tech company Flock Safety are believed to be walking the halls, shopping an inappropriate, last-minute amendment to authorize a warrantless surveillance system. Should legislators approve this plan, it would put a woke, big tech firm in charge of implementing the warrantless surveillance of Oklahomans.”

Gann’s concerns about the politicization of Oklahoma law enforcement surfaced after multiple reports emerged from Oklahoma cities that have experimented with these systems—often rolled out rapidly through questionable sole-source contracts with the fast-expanding tech company Flock Safety. These systems, which are not specifically authorized by state law, appear to be engaging in surveillance practices that Gann believes amount to discriminatory enforcement and civil rights violations.

In every instance where policies governing Flock’s warrantless surveillance systems have been made public, Oklahoma law enforcement agencies—including those in Guthrie, Piedmont, Tulsa, and Del City—have explicitly prohibited their use for immigration enforcement.

“By allowing woke, big tech policies to dictate policing strategy, these law enforcement agencies are discriminating against citizens who follow the law in favor of those who have entered our nation illegally and remain in a permanent state of illegality. These departments are also putting the state at risk of being labeled a sanctuary state by the incoming Trump administration.”

Gann says that’s just the beginning. “If the lobbyists for the big tech firm Flock Safety succeed in their late-session efforts, the future of Oklahoma law enforcement will look very different. Gone will be the days of traditional policing—by human officers guided by good judgment and common sense, built through years of human experience in their communities. It will be replaced with the cold, uncaring eye of AI, likely trained on woke policies and directed by analysts seated in fortress-like command centers far removed from the real world. It’s a new type of policing akin to that of the United Kingdom where police are known for a massive surveillance state and overlooking serious crime in favor of easy, gotcha-type convictions.”

Gann points to Tulsa as a preview of what this kind of policing could look like in Oklahoma if the legislation advances. There, in recent months, reporting has revealed that Tulsa’s mayor has been approving a no-bid contract with Flock and Tulsa has built a new command center and hired 20 analysts to operate a growing network of automated, warrantless surveillance devices. A report from Tulsa’s Fox 23 detailed how these devices recently led police to build a case against a man they charged with shooting with intent to kill, but who was later found to be innocent. Another individual was ultimately charged with the crime, but not before police wrongly detained the first man after they reportedly become involved in a “standoff.” It’s a case and an abuse example that’s sure to receive significant attention in the upcoming weeks and months.

“When policing policy is guided first by money and sole-source contracts, and second by ‘woke’ ideology, any number of nonsensical outcomes will follow,” Gann said. “That’s not how law enforcement is supposed to work. And in the next few days, the Oklahoma Legislature will likely have the opportunity to reject this lobbyist-and-money driven madness.”

Gann suggests that foreign nations will view the surveillance system as a top priority target, and once inside the system, are likely to passively observe the surveillance network to gather intelligence such as conduct corporate espionage on Oklahoma businesses and potentially generate honeypot and blackmail information to targeted business leaders and elected officials.

Gann warned that Flock Safety’s earlystage financier, Matrix Partners, still shares branding and legacy profitsharing links with its Beijing-based affiliate Matrix Partners China—marketed domestically as “Jingwei” (经纬).

Because Jingwei is organized under PRC jurisdiction, it is legally required to cooperate with Chinese statesecurity and intelligence demands. Gann fears that this indirect, but very concerning link could create a potential pathway for foreign influence over the sensitive licenseplate data gathered in Oklahoma. Especially considering the massive presence of this single company on Oklahoma law enforcement, Gann says this is an unacceptable risk for the state to incumber.

“Flock’s CEO has said he wants to put one of these devices on every street corner. It would be naive to realize this massive risk of giving a single company this 24/7 real-time, warrantless, omnipresent surveillance. Those in possession of this information, to including thousands of Flock users, potential hackers, and even foreign influencers will give them leverage over politicians and elected officials. One can only imagine the damage that can be done when every move of elected officials can be tracked. That cannot be allowed to happen.”

Independent media research has revealed that Oklahoma law enforcement agencies have used the Flock scanners to set up a secondary surveillance network that connects departments across jurisdictions, enabling shared access across numerous government entities both inside and outside of Oklahoma. This includes the controversial federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). In one case, a local independent media outlet discovered that the Guthrie Police Department had linked its devices to both the Wisconsin Fusion Center—which disseminates data with other departments—and the federal ATF.

Other points of Gann’s concern include the mission creep enabled by the system. Gann says massive searches are now being conducted for relatively minor offenses. Although the technology was marketed to city councils as a tool for serious incidents like homicides or kidnappings, mission creep has taken hold. Flock search logs now show that mega queries are being executed, some of over thousands of devices have been queried for minor, routine offenses such as “credit card fraud.”

Gann also states that whistleblower testimony has suggested that custom alerts are potentially being set for certain individuals, subsequently allowing monitoring in real time without their awareness or, presumably, judicial approval or due process. When a targeted individual passes a scanner, notifications are sent to government employees alerting them to that individual’s travel. This allows city officials to know when the targeted individual has entered their city.

As the session wraps up, Gann is committed to educating his fellow colleagues on the ongoing dangers of the proposal with a special emphasis preventing it from being introduced through a late session amendment and/or bill shucking.

“A matter of this enormous consequence and magnitude must be deliberated through the normal due process of time and transparency. For the Legislature to act on such a dramatic proposal outside of that process, during the final days of session, would be a grave error with far-reaching consequences.”

Sourcing:

Immigration Enforcement Excluded

https://transparency.flocksafety.com/guthrie-ok-pd

https://transparency.flocksafety.com/piedmont-ok-pd-

https://transparency.flocksafety.com/tulsa-ok-pd

https://transparency.flocksafety.com/del-city-ok-pd

Search Logs — Mega Searches for Minor Purposes

https://soonersentinel.substack.com/p/guthries-growing-surveillance-web

Flock on Every Street Corner

https://www.fox6now.com/news/wisconsin-ai-powered-flock-cameras

Tulsa Surveillance Center and No Bid Contract

Tulsa’s surveillance gamble