Dan Netemeyer is the police chief of Gulf Shores, Alabama. A former FBI assistant special agent in charge of the Kansas City Division, he joined the Gulf Shores Police Department as deputy chief in 2020 and has led the department since Ed Delmore stepped down in February 2025.
Role at the time: Police chief of Gulf Shores, Alabama
Defended or excused
Statement summary
In a city news release posted April 3, 2026, Gulf Shores Police Chief Dan Netemeyer described the city's Flock cameras as another tool for delivering law enforcement services and a "great force multiplier." He said the system alerts police to license plates tied to a school threat and described a missing-person case in which a driver was located within 12 minutes after her plate was entered into the system.
“These cameras are another tool in the way we deliver law enforcement services to the community. ... These cameras are a great force multiplier.”
Read the official statement (opens in a new tab)Gulf Shores Police Using FLOCK Cameras to Enhance Public SafetyNews item body, the two quotation paragraphs attributed to Chief Netemeyer (beginning 'These cameras are another tool' and 'These cameras are a great force multiplier')
Why we used this label
The reference point is whether networked license-plate reader systems such as Flock should exist and be used. Netemeyer describes the city's Flock cameras as another tool and a "great force multiplier" and cites a school-threat alert and a missing-person recovery, which fits Defended or excused and Keep on the remedy ladder. The closest competing label is Mixed or conditional, which would fit a request for added limits; the release describes the system's existing access and retention limits and he asks for no change.
Networked automated license-plate cameras can assemble searchable records of vehicle movements. Candidates and officials disagree over whether to ban the systems, keep them with limits, or defend them as investigative tools. This tracker separates outright bans from narrower restrictions.
