The Gulf Shores Police Department is installing 83 cameras to help fight crime, but Police Chief Dan Netemeyer said he wants to respond to concerns the cameras are a “big brother” way for government to spy on the public.

The Flock Safety cameras will be placed along roadways to monitor and alert authorities when stolen vehicles or drivers with outstanding warrants come to town. The cameras include license plate readers and can be watched live.

“The misconception is it's a ‘big brother overwatch,” Netemeyer said. “If that's their feeling, they should consider throwing their phone away because what they're doing on their phone is several times over, much more concentrated than what we would do if you're driving by a license plate reader and your plate gets entered into a database that no one's ever going to review.”

The installation of the cameras began in December 2025. Already, police have been alerted to a subject with a nationwide extradition warrant, a local warrant and to a stolen vehicle.

The system is interconnected to more than 700 law enforcement agencies throughout the country. The initial installation cost the city $330,000, all of which was paid for through the asset forfeiture program.

“We use drug assets, ill-gotten proceeds from drug dealers,” Netemeyer explained. “So the taxpayers, at least for the first year, aren't on the hook for anything.”

Netemeyer said the cameras also helped track a missing elderly woman who wandered off and ended up in Panama City.

“We were able to track her all the way and we had her pulled over by the Highway Patrol within 15 minutes,” Netemeyer said. “It's such a tremendous tool. Who doesn't want to know if a registered sex offender has come too close to a park or a kids' park? Who doesn't want to know if a registered sex offender is too close to the high school prohibited area? Who doesn't?”

As a tourism city, Netemeyer said Gulf Shores has visitors from all over. He said the cameras are no different than a patrol officer sitting on the side of a road.

Netemeyer said data collected is only accessed for official law enforcement use. He said misuse of a government system, such as Flock, is punishable by a federal offense. He said all queries into the system are strictly regulated.

“No one's in there checking on old girlfriends or ex-husbands or ex-wives or anything like that,” said Netemeyer. “It's all for an authorized law enforcement purpose and it gives us such a better way to protect the city. I say this all the time: We have to police bigger in Gulf Shores. We have 62 officers to cover as many as 200,000 people being in this town in peak times during the summer. Those numbers don't even match up. So, what we have to do is find ways to allow us to police more efficiently and more effectively without requiring a bunch of police officers that wouldn't have much to do in the wintertime.”

Netemeyer said he believes the Flock camera system is a monumental tool, on par with fingerprinting and DNA.