The Cameras Don’t Check Your Status. ICE Uses Them Anyway.

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Flock sells its cameras as a tool for stolen vehicles and missing persons. But public records keep showing the same thing: the network is also being used for immigration enforcement — and the camera at the end of your street doesn’t check anyone’s status. It logs every vehicle, citizen and noncitizen alike. A dragnet built “for crime” becomes a deportation tool, and everyone gets swept up in it.

What the records actually show

ICE doesn’t have its own contract with Flock. It doesn’t need one. According to data reviewed by 404 Media, ICE has asked state and local police to run Flock searches on its behalf — more than 4,000 lookups tied to immigration. Records from one Illinois department show officers typing the reason for their searches in plain language: “immigration,” “ICE,” “ICE+ERO,” “deportee.” It isn’t subtle. And it isn’t isolated:

• Virginia’s Flock network logged nearly 3,000 immigration-related searches in a single 12-month stretch.
• Dayton, Ohio found its cameras had been searched more than 7,100 times for immigration purposes — searches its own policy supposedly prohibited.
• More than 53 cities have canceled Flock contracts over exactly this: unauthorized federal access to their data.

“We turned off federal sharing” doesn’t close the door

Flock said in early 2026 that it disabled federal agency access by default. That’s worth acknowledging — but it doesn’t end the problem, because the workaround is simple: a local officer runs the search and hands the result to ICE. The audits above are how we know it kept happening. A policy on paper isn’t a lock on the data.

Why this is everyone’s problem — not just immigrants’

Whatever you think about immigration policy, sit with the mechanism: a warrantless system that tracks everyone’s movements, with no public vote and weak oversight, can be quietly repurposed to hunt a specific group of people. The same tool that maps your neighbor’s drive to work maps yours. The line between “they’re only after them” and “they’re after you” is one search field and one policy change. That’s why immigrant-rights groups and privacy hawks and gun owners keep landing in the same coalition.

Here in North Carolina

This isn’t a faraway story. Our own public records show that agencies far outside North Carolina — and federal ones — searched New Hanover County’s Flock data, with the names redacted. (Who’s searching our cameras.) North Carolina has sheriffs who partner with ICE, and the county’s cameras log everyone who drives past, regardless of status. The result is a chilling cost borne by whole communities: the fear of driving to work, to church, to a clinic, to pick up your kids — because a camera you can’t see is keeping a record you can’t access.

A dragnet that logs everyone can be aimed at anyone. Today it’s your neighbor. The tool doesn’t care who’s next.

What you can do

• Ask the Sheriff and the County Commissioners, in public: Is New Hanover County’s Flock data searched for immigration enforcement, by anyone, including on behalf of federal agencies? Publish the audit.
• Support canceling the contract — the only sure way to stop the data from being collected at all. Speak at the commission.
• Know this: the cameras collect on everyone regardless of immigration status; there is no way to opt out by driving carefully. The fix is political, not personal.
• Email your leaders and sign the petition.

Sources

• 404 Media — ICE taps into nationwide AI camera network
• EFF — Are your local police using Flock to scan for immigrants?
• NPR — Why some cities are canceling Flock contracts · DeFlockILM — Who’s searching our cameras

General information for public discussion, not legal advice, and not immigration advice. Figures are drawn from public records and the linked reporting. For guidance about your own situation, consult a licensed attorney. Last updated June 30, 2026.