Sheriff Ramon Pineiroa says the technology now under fire in Congress might have cracked the Jason Ellis and Kathy and Samantha Netherland cases years ago.

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Flock cameras are under attack in Washington and at the state level- but law enforcement is fighting back. Now, a local sheriff is putting it in perspective, saying two of Kentucky's most high-profile unsolved murders wouldn't be unsolved had this technology been used sooner.

Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie announced he plans to file a bill to withhold federal funding from any police department or municipality that uses Flock- or similar surveillance camera systems to monitor law-abiding citizens. The threat has agencies across the country facing the same question: are these cameras actually worth it?

Overwhelmingly, the answer coming back from law enforcement is yes. Not because of politics, but because departments say it's an investigative tool with capabilities nothing else in their arsenal can match.

In one Kentucky county, that argument isn't abstract. Nelson County Sheriff Ramon Pineiroa believes that if he'd had this technology years earlier, two of the county's most high-profile unsolved cases- the murder of Bardstown Police Officer Jason Ellis, and the double homicide of Kathy and Samantha Netherland- would already be solved.

"We knew we had a black car, and it would have crossed one of those cameras going into the area of the Netherland home. If we had these cameras installed back in 2014, that double homicide would be solved today", Sheriff Pineiroa said, "That's a fact."

Special education teacher Kathy Netherland and her 16-year-old daughter Samantha were killed in April of 2014. According to Kentucky State Police, they were beaten, stabbed, and tortured inside their home, which was near Bardstown city limits. Their bodies were discovered the next day, after Kathy didn't show up to work.

During the initial weeks of the investigation, police released an image of a black car, believed to be an Impala that detectives believed could be linked to the case. Images of that vehicle were made public more than a decade ago. The case is still unsolved.

"We would have known whose car that was, because if you entered Nelson County, we would have had you", Pineiroa said. Asked point-blank whether he thought the Flock system could have cracked the Netherland case, he didn't hedge.