Can You Opt Out of Flock?

Short answer: No. There is no way to opt out of having your vehicle scanned by Flock’s automated license plate readers. Every car that passes a camera is photographed and logged — whether or not you have done anything wrong, and whether or not you consent. What you can do is help get the cameras removed, and shrink the rest of the data trail that makes you trackable.

Why there’s no opt-out

Flock’s cameras don’t check a list of people who agreed to be tracked. They photograph every passing vehicle and record its plate, location, date, time, and a “vehicle fingerprint” — make, model, color, and features like roof racks and bumper stickers. Collection happens first; questions come later. There is no form to fill out, no setting to toggle, and no registry that exempts you. Your license plate is issued by the state and displayed in public, and the system is built to read all of them.

Can’t I just cover or block my plate?

Don’t. In North Carolina it is illegal to obscure your license plate with a cover, spray, or frame that hides the numbers or defeats a reader — and doing so hands police a lawful reason to pull you over. (Here’s the law on plate covers.) The goal isn’t to break one law to dodge one camera; it’s to end the dragnet for everyone.

What about deleting my data?

You can’t request deletion of your own scans the way you might with a data broker. Flock’s raw plate reads roll off on a retention schedule — its contractual default is about 30 days — but two catches remain: the county can preserve specific data longer, and the New Hanover County contract grants Flock a worldwide, perpetual license to the anonymized, derived data, which does not expire. (More on the contract.) So “it deletes in 30 days” is only part of the story.

Isn’t there a “safelist” or “whitelist”?

You may have run across the term in Flock’s own materials. Flock offers agencies a “safelist” (sometimes called a custom or hot-list exclusion) — a list of plates the system treats differently. But it is controlled by the law-enforcement agency, not by you. There is no public form to add your own plate, no resident registry, and no obligation on any agency to offer one. A handful of departments elsewhere have let residents request a safelist entry after public pressure; most, including here, do not. And even where it exists, a safelist entry affects only that one agency’s instance — it does not pull your reads out of the nationwide network thousands of other agencies can still search. It’s a courtesy some agencies grant, not an opt-out you control.

What about a Flock camera in my neighborhood or HOA?

This is the one place an “opt-out” conversation is real. Some Flock cameras are bought by homeowners’ associations and private businesses, not police — and those are governed by your HOA board or the property owner, who can vote to remove them or stop sharing the feed with law enforcement. If a camera watches your street through an HOA, you have a direct say. (How HOA Flock cameras work — and how to push back.)

The one thing that actually works

You can’t opt yourself out. But a community can opt all of itself out — by ending the contract. That isn’t theory: Hillsborough, Pittsboro, Chatham County, and Macon County did exactly that. The cameras come down by a vote, not a form. In New Hanover County, that means the commissioners who fund the contract and the Sheriff who runs it. (What our records show · the numbers.)

• Sign the petition — documented opposition is what moves a board. Add your name.
• Email your commissioners and the Sheriff — one click loads a ready-to-send message.
• Speak at a commission meeting — three minutes, on the record.

What you can do for yourself today

While the campaign works on the cameras, you can shrink the other data that makes you trackable — the phone, app, and broker data that can be combined with plate reads to reconstruct your movements. That part is within your control. (Privacy is a strategy: start here.)

Sources

• DeFlockILM — Three Million Searches, Zero Names · What New Hanover County pays · NC law on plate covers.
• N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-183.30–.33 (ALPR retention and disclosure limits).

General information for public discussion, not legal advice. Last updated July 11, 2026.