License Plate Readers in Onslow County, NC
It isn’t Flock — but it watches the same way. The Onslow County Sheriff’s Office runs twelve PlateRanger readers across the county, capturing every passing plate, make, model, color, and direction of travel. The vendor is different. The tracking is identical.
Residents of Onslow County among the signers of the petition at change.org/DeFlockILM, as of Oct. 4, 2026.
The Onslow County Sheriff’s Office, under Sheriff Chris Thomas, runs twelve PlateRanger automated license plate readers on public roadways across the county — a Flock competitor, begun in early 2026. The system captures each passing vehicle’s plate, make, model, color, and direction of travel and compares it against plates tied to active investigations; if there is no match, the office says the record is deleted after 30 days. A different vendor from Flock — and proof the surveillance question is bigger than one brand.
Onslow County Board of Commissioners — next meeting: Monday, October 5, 2026
11:00 a.m. · Onslow County Government Center, 234 NW Corridor Blvd, Jacksonville, NC 28540. The Board meets the 1st and 3rd Mondays; the first meeting of the month is at 11:00 a.m. and the second is in the evening. If you work days, the next evening meeting is Monday, October 19 at 6:00 p.m. — the easier one to attend. Every regular meeting includes a public-comment period.
The ask is simple: tell your commissioners, on the record, to give the public a full accounting of the Sheriff’s PlateRanger system — who can search it, who is audited, and whether the data ever leaves North Carolina — and to put any renewal to a recorded public vote.
Arrive about 15 minutes early to sign up for public comment, state your name and address at the podium, and keep it to one clear ask. Bring a neighbor — numbers in the room move a board. To confirm sign-up steps, call the Clerk to the Board at (910) 347-4717.
Email the Board → Sign the statewide petition →
All seven at-large members reach one inbox: BOC@onslowcountync.gov — Chair Tim Foster, Vice-Chair Robin Knapp, Royce Bennett, Paul Buchanan, Lisa Carpenter, John Davis, Tony Padgett. Meeting dates verified from the County’s 2026 regular-meeting schedule — always confirm the posted agenda before you go.
Onslow County by the numbers
The cameras, on the map
Live map of ALPR cameras across Onslow County, from the crowdsourced DeFlock map.
What the record shows
The Sheriff has addressed it publicly. Answering community concerns, Sheriff Chris Thomas told WCTI the PlateRanger system is meant to support criminal investigations with privacy safeguards: cameras on public roadways read plates and vehicle details, compare them to plates tied to active investigations, alert deputies on a match, and delete non-matching records after 30 days. He cited recovering stolen vehicles, locating missing people, and developing leads in serious crimes.
What we now have — and what we still don’t. Public-records requests by Hubert United have surfaced the procurement record: Purchase Order #20261726, ordered November 24, 2025 by the Sheriff’s Office — $38,114 for twelve PlateRanger ALPRs (a five-camera evaluation phase ran through Nov. 28, 2025; the full system went live April 21, 2026) — along with the SoundThinking invoices, the County’s payment ledger, and the written ALPR policy. What remains missing is the search-audit log — who ran which searches, and who else can reach Onslow’s data. Those are the records that turn a reassurance into something residents can check. Our records-request guide has the language to ask for them.
The full record
- Request the records — the exact language to send the Sheriff and the county.
- Columbus, Pender, and Brunswick — the neighboring county networks.
- The records hub — where every Cape Fear agency stands.
Where the Onslow candidates stand
A neighboring nonpartisan research group, Hubert United (Hubert & eastern Onslow County), put one written question to all five 2026 candidates for the Onslow County Board of Commissioners — whether they support the county’s continued use, renewal, or expansion of PlateRanger, and what they would require before more county money is committed — and published every response in full. Here is where each landed. (Summaries are plain-language; each candidate’s complete written answer is linked.)
Rebecca Cooper — opposes it outright. In a Sept. 23, 2026 statement to DeFlockILM, she grounded her position in principle, not cost: “Even if it became error proof and impossible to hack, I would still oppose it… The issue is the premise of mass surveillance of people who are not suspected of wrongdoing,” concluding, “I do not support mass surveillance.” (her statement in full · earlier response)
Whitney Cantrell — opposes spending county tax dollars to continue, renew, or expand it, citing privacy, cybersecurity, liability, and fiscal responsibility. (response)
Dr. Michel Leandre Jr. — would consider continuing only after reviewing funding and costs, documented performance, privacy protections, access controls, and legal compliance, with regular public reporting, and would not support more funding unless those standards are met. (response)
Tim Foster (Board Chair) — supports PlateRanger only if used lawfully and constitutionally, with Sheriff’s Office control of the data, no third-party access beyond storage, no expansion beyond reading plates, and full financial transparency. (response)
Royce Bennett — supports what he calls responsible use of law-enforcement equipment within legal guidelines; says his support is not conditional, and points to the independently elected Sheriff as the place to press unresolved questions. (response)
We would remove this program, not merely condition it — but we credit every candidate who put a position on the record, and we thank Hubert United for the work. Their full PlateRanger records investigation documents $52,099 paid to SoundThinking, county-confirmed non-ownership of the equipment, and a funding-source trail the records still do not close.
What you can do
Only the Onslow County Board of Commissioners and the Sheriff can end this program. Ask them, on the record, for the policy, the contract, and the audit logs — and whether Onslow’s data leaves the county.
Sign the petition Email the Board & Sheriff Email your leaders
You’re not a suspect. So stop being tracked like one.
It takes one minute. Add your name — then tell the officials who represent you to take the cameras down.