Ned England Says His YouTube Channel "Basically" Ended The Flock Camera Program; City Says That Is Not How It Went

WAUKESHA — One day after the Common Council voted 7-2 to discontinue the city's Flock Safety license-plate reader contract, Ned England, 70, of Backslide Way, is telling anyone who will hold still that his YouTube channel did it, or at minimum "did most of it, if we're being honest about percentages."

The video in question, an April upload to Ned England's channel Nedventuresout titled "EVERY CAMERA THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO COUNT (Backslide Way Edition)," is four minutes and eleven seconds long and consists of Ned England driving to all nine Flock camera locations in his Buick and reading their cross streets aloud into a dashboard-mounted phone. It has, as of Tuesday, 31 views, a figure Ned England attributes to "the algorithm suppressing it, which if anything proves my point."

"I mapped every pole from East Avenue to Sunset Drive before the city ever put out a press release," Ned England said, seated in a lawn chair in his driveway. "You're telling me the council didn't see that video. Somebody's cousin works for the city. It gets around."

The Competing Claim

Ned England's version of events puts him in direct competition with the "WE WON" thread in the Downtown Waukesha Nextdoor group, whose most active poster, Randall Jesske, 56, has separately credited the discontinuation to eleven months of his own posts. Asked about Jesske's claim, Ned England said he did not use Nextdoor "on principle" and that he had "no comment on a man I've never met taking credit for my work."

"I said it in April and I'll say it again. When you count poles, you win. I counted nine poles. We won."

— Ned England, Nedventuresout

City Administrator Kevin Lahner, reached for comment, said he was not aware of the video and that the Public Safety Committee's decision was driven by a report finding the $94,000-a-year program had assisted in the recovery of one vehicle, a 2014 Subaru Outback taken from a driveway on Northview Road. "I don't doubt Mr. England drove to all nine poles," Lahner said. "I can tell you the council's copy of the budget did not include a link to his channel."

Nedsmokedout Weighs In

Ned England's second channel, Nedsmokedout, dedicated exclusively to air-quality content measured by counting visible lampposts from the Frame Park pedestrian bridge, has not covered the Flock story, which Ned England said was intentional. "That channel's got a mission," he said. "Lampposts. I don't cross-post. Some creators cross-post. I'm not built that way."

Trevor England, who lives at home with his father, said only that the driveway had been "busier than usual" this week and that he had been asked twice to hold a phone at "a cinematic angle" for a follow-up video. He declined to elaborate further.

Bob Krueger, the retired DPW supervisor who writes occasionally for the paper's opinion page, said he'd watched the pole video "twice, out of respect," and that while he wasn't prepared to credit it with ending an $94,000 city contract, he would say Ned England "got the cross streets right, which is more than I can say for some council packets."

What Ned England Wants Next

Councilman Gary Puchalski, who voted to end the program, said the deciding factor for most members was the invoice, not any video or Nextdoor thread. "I have not seen this man's channel," Puchalski said. "I'm sure it's fine."

Ned England said he was already planning a follow-up video documenting the physical removal of the nine poles, expected by December 31, and that he intended to be present for "at least the first one, maybe the Sunset Drive one, if the light's good." He said he had not decided whether to post it to Nedventuresout or start a third channel. "I don't want to get pigeonholed," he said. "I contain multitudes. I just also count poles."