{"id":255656,"date":"2026-05-26T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/26\/roanoke-mayor-speaks-on-privacy-concerns-over-new-surveillance-tools\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T07:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T11:00:11","slug":"roanoke-mayor-speaks-on-privacy-concerns-over-new-surveillance-tools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/26\/roanoke-mayor-speaks-on-privacy-concerns-over-new-surveillance-tools\/","title":{"rendered":"Roanoke mayor speaks on privacy concerns over new surveillance tools"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roanoke mayor speaks on privacy concerns over new surveillance tools<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/wfirnews.com\/news\/roanoke-mayor-speaks-on-privacy-concerns-over-new-surveillance-tools<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-05-26 06:00:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: wfirnews.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Roanoke officials are navigating a delicate balance between high-tech crime fighting and resident privacy as the city considers expanding its surveillance network. Mayor Joe Cobb recently addressed growing concerns regarding the planned installation of 75 Raven acoustic sensors designed to detect gunshots. While the city already operates 24 Flock Safety license plate readers, the addition of audio technology has sparked fears of unauthorized voice recording.<\/p>\n

Proven Success With License Plate Readers<\/h2>\n

The existing Flock cameras identify vehicle details like make, color, and license plates to solve crimes. Cobb noted the technology recently helped the Roanoke Police Department locate a missing man with dementia who had wandered from home.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving these sorts of technology available to locate people who are lost in their vehicles is really helpful,\u201d Cobb said during an in-studio interview with WFIR.<\/p>\n

The system also assisted in closing two unrelated gas station robberies. RPD used the data to identify suspect vehicles and make arrests. In another instance, authorities tracked a stolen vehicle across state lines into another state. \u201cOur police department has confidence in it as they vetted these different technologies,\u201d Cobb added.<\/p>\n

Addressing Audio Privacy Concerns<\/h2>\n

Despite these successes, the proposed Raven sensors face significant pushback. Some residents worry the devices will record private conversations. Cobb clarified that the sensors trigger specifically for noises similar to gunshots.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people were asking questions because they feel like the audio devices are going to record people\u2019s voices,\u201d Cobb said. \u201cThat is not my understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Flock\u2019s product documentation suggests the Raven system can detect \u201csounds of human distress,\u201d including screaming and shouting. Cobb emphasized that the city council shares these concerns. \u201cWe don\u2019t want any technology to be abused or to invade anyone\u2019s privacy,\u201d he…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roanoke mayor speaks on privacy concerns over new surveillance tools https:\/\/wfirnews.com\/news\/roanoke-mayor-speaks-on-privacy-concerns-over-new-surveillance-tools Publish Date: 2026-05-26 06:00:00…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":255657,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wfirnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Joe-Cobb-in-Studio.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-255656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-privacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255656"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255656"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":255658,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255656\/revisions\/255658"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}