Amanda’s true story may change your opinion about Flock
Posted March 24, 2026
The Kirchgessner family sinks deep progressive roots into this community’s soil. Some will recall that most recently, in 2019, Amanda Kirchgessner made a run for Enfield Town Supervisor. Now residing across the line in Ulysses, Amanda these days speaks regularly before the Tompkins County Legislature. She spoke again March 19. And as Ithaca and Tompkins County debate and decide whether to purge Flock surveillance cameras from city streets and rural roads, Ms. Kirchgessner used her three allotted minutes wisely this past Thursday. She delivered a message powerful and persuasive. And it deserves yielding this page to her every word:
****
“Good evening. My name is Amanda Kirchgessner. I’m a lifelong resident of Tompkins County. And I’m going to start this evening by saying something plainly:
“I’m angry. I’m angry because I genuinely believe this community is different. I believe we cared, and I believe that our level of education, our access to resources, and our relative privilege meant that we had the capacity for nuance, for deliberateness, for actually taking the time to get complex decisions right. And right now I’m not seeing it.
“I’m seeing fatigue. I’m seeing reactivity. I’m seeing self-righteousness and judgment. And I’m seeing a failure to create and hold space for nuance and decisions that directly impact people’s safety.
“What I’m about to share is deeply uncomfortable. But that’s part of the problem. We avoid discomfort, and in doing so, we avoid reality.
“On Wednesday, March 11th, around 9:30 at night, on Cayuga Street right in front of the library, I was approached by three men in a vehicle and propositioned for sex. They were trying to get me into their car. The man speaking to me lowered his voice and was trying to draw me closer. He was mumbling. It was very subtle, but very intentional. It was a tactic.
“I told over a dozen people in the following days, and not one of us immediately thought to report it. But it wasn’t until I spoke with a friend on Sunday, who’s served on the Ithaca Community Police Board, that I was told that this sounded like routine behavior, and I needed to report it.
“So I did. I went down to IPD that afternoon, and the officer there told me that the Flock camera system had been disabled, which means if it had been active there’s a real possibility that the vehicle could have been identified.
“So I’m just asking what are we doing? We’re watching Epstein dominate national headlines, confronting the reality of exploitation at the highest levels of power, and yet we seem unwilling to acknowledge that trafficking is not distant; it is local. It shows up quietly in moments like this. And at the same time, we are removing one of the most valuable tools law enforcement has to identify patterns and intervene. How does this help protect our community?
“Our children are watching us avoid these conversations right now. They can feel when we choose comfort over clarity. And I want to say something difficult. There are people in this community who might quietly celebrate my disappearance. And at that same time my greatest fear is that anyone in this room or anyone’s child in this community could face what I was facing last Wednesday evening, here or anywhere.
“I want to believe that we are capable of nuance. And I want to believe that we are capable of doing better, but only if we’re willing to slow down, to tell the truth, and engage fully with the complexity of what is happening. I’m asking us to do this. I trust us because at the end of the day, we are all that we have, friends. We are all that we have.
“Thank you.”
****
Amanda Kirchgessner thus finished her remarks. Others then spoke. The meeting moved on.
Back on March 4, in a unanimous decision, the Ithaca Common Council voted to terminate its ongoing contract with Flock Safety. Council thereby effectively denied Ithaca Police access to the traffic cameras’ license reading capabilities. The Tompkins County Sheriff also uses Flock. Yet in meeting after meeting, Flock-skeptical critics have marched into Legislative Chambers; taken to the mics, and one by one implored Tompkins County legislators to do exactly what the City has now done. Indeed, as many as six of those critics renewed their opposition March 19, the night Amanda Kirchgessner spoke. Public opposition has prompted extended debate among lawmakers themselves. .
Amid this controversy, a legislative committee has empaneled a working group to chart the system’s continued reach in areas beyond the Ithaca city line. The working group will hold its first meeting in April. No deadline’s been set for when the working group’s recommendations will issue.
Sometimes tough problems point to easy answers and bright-line remedies. But sometimes they do not. Amanda Kirchgessner’s words suggest to many of us that Flock’s future better rests amongst those problems tougher to resolve.
Sadly, Kirchgessner’s plea for nuance has yet to resonate. Maybe the greater clarity she seeks will find its voice; maybe not.
In the meantime, please stay safe. As was said, we are all that we have.
Robert Lynch