Flock Cameras in Wrightsville Beach, NC
The same records request went to three beach towns on the same day. Kure Beach and Carolina Beach produced within days. Wrightsville Beach referred ours to a law firm — and 100 days later still withholds the per-search audit logs that name who searches its cameras.
Residents of Wrightsville Beach among the signers of the petition at change.org/DeFlockILM, as of Oct. 4, 2026.
Wrightsville Beach runs Flock automated license plate reader cameras — they appear on the crowdsourced map, and the neighboring Kure Beach Police Department granted Wrightsville Beach PD search, alerts, and analytics access to its network, so we know Wrightsville Beach reaches into the shared system. The Town referred our records request to outside counsel and produced only partially on August 14, 2026; 100 days on, it still withholds the per-search audit logs that name who searches its cameras.
A New Hanover County grand jury indicted former Wrightsville Beach officer Tonya Baker for misusing an automated license-plate reader (N.C.G.S. § 20-183.31(b)) — accessing two North Carolina plates without a legitimate law-enforcement purpose between Feb. 10 and May 12. Because the Town’s own cameras were not live until March, the SBI says she reached into New Hanover County’s Flock network — the same system the County voted to cancel Sept. 8. The Town’s own audit caught it (SBI opened July 16). She was arrested Sept. 9 on a $500 unsecured bond; next in court Oct. 12 (later continued to Nov. 9). It is a Class 1 misdemeanor, and an indictment is an accusation, not a conviction. Baker is now the third North Carolina officer criminally charged over Flock misuse, after Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Mooresville. (The full account · the NC misuse tracker)
Wrightsville Beach Board of Aldermen — next meeting: Tuesday, October 13, 2026
5:30 p.m. · Town Hall, 321 Causeway Drive, Wrightsville Beach, NC 28480. The Board meets the 2nd Tuesday of each month at 5:30 p.m.; after October 13, the next dates are Tuesday, November 10 and Tuesday, December 8. Every regular meeting includes a public-comment period. (A daytime strategic-planning workshop is set for Sept. 21 at 9:30 a.m., but the October 13 regular meeting is where residents speak.)
The ask is simple: tell your Board, on the record, to end the Town’s Flock program and release the withheld who-searched audit logs in full — the same records a Town audit used to catch an officer’s misuse. The Town has now gone 100 days and still won’t say who searches its cameras. The Board that funds the program can end it.
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. To confirm sign-up steps, call Town Hall at 910-256-7900.
Email the Mayor & Board → Sign the statewide petition →
Mayor Ken Dull · Mayor Pro Tem Jeff DeGroote · Zeke Partin · Margaret Baggett · Todd Schoen (cc: Clerk to the Board). Meeting dates verified from the Town’s official agenda portal — always confirm the posted agenda before you go.
The Town produced once, on August 14, 2026, through outside counsel: a Flock order form (four Falcon readers, $12,000/year), an invoice (INV-84665), the ALPR policy (Policy 5.09), an SBI/DCI MOU, a network sharing-features configuration, a camera-location list (with GPS coordinates — a disclosure no other agency here has made), and an account Event Log — all as a scanned PDF, not native CSV.
What is still missing, 100 days on, is the point of the request: the per-search Organization Audit and Network Audit that name who searched the Town’s cameras, when, and why. The Event Log records account activity (hotlists, user changes, sharing grants), not searches. The Town’s own offense-type summary — the one new record in its October 7 letter — shows Traffic Infraction as its No. 2 search category (144, 18.70%), a use § 20-183.31(b) prohibits. (The full story: one request, three excuses, 100 days →)
Page updated October 8, 2026.
The cameras, on the map
Live map of ALPR cameras in and around Wrightsville Beach, from the crowdsourced DeFlock map.
The four camera sites — from the Town’s own records
The Town’s August 14 production included the exact GPS coordinates of its Flock cameras — a disclosure no other agency in this project has made, and one that confirms the crowdsourced map above. All four ring the Causeway, the single bridge onto the island, plus Waynick Blvd: in practice, every vehicle entering or leaving Wrightsville Beach is read.
| Location (Town’s label) | Device | Latitude | Longitude |
|---|---|---|---|
| Waynick Blvd @ Causeway (SB) | LPR camera | 34.20808 | −77.79651 |
| Greensboro Street Park (EB) | Long-range LPR | 34.21527 | −77.79172 |
| Causeway Dr @ Island Dr (WB) | Long-range LPR | 34.21147 | −77.80132 |
| Causeway Dr @ Landing / Kent St | Long-range LPR | 34.21120 | −77.80152 |
Source: Town of Wrightsville Beach production (Bates TOWB 021), Aug 14, 2026. Installed Nov 2025. Each site also has a paired “compute box” at the same coordinates — one LPR camera plus three long-range readers, four sites in all.
Wrightsville Beach by the numbers
100 days, and still no search logs
The same request, three towns, one holdout. We sent the identical ALPR records request to Kure Beach, Carolina Beach, and Wrightsville Beach on the same day. Kure Beach and Carolina Beach produced within days. Wrightsville Beach referred the matter to outside counsel and produced only partially on August 14, 2026 — the contract, invoice, policy, an SBI/DCI agreement, a sharing config, and an account Event Log (as a scanned PDF). One hundred days on, it still withholds the per-search Organization and Network Audits that name who searched its cameras.
We know it uses the network. Whatever Wrightsville Beach is choosing not to show, its cameras are real and its department reaches the shared Flock network — Kure Beach’s own records show Kure granted Wrightsville Beach PD access. The town is not opaque because there is nothing to see. It is opaque by choice.
And Wrightsville Beach is no stranger to surveillance. This is a town that has built a camera network before — in public, on the record. In June 2021, the Board of Aldermen approved an ~$88,000 upgrade that expanded the town’s system to about 68 cameras. (Port City Daily · WECT.) So the town knows exactly how to put a surveillance decision on a public agenda — which makes the silence on its Flock plate-reader program a choice, not an oversight. If the Board separately authorized the Flock ALPR system, that record exists. The town simply will not produce it.
If the council voted, we found no record. We have located no public vote by the Wrightsville Beach Board of Aldermen authorizing a Flock program. If one exists, show us and we will correct this page.
What full transparency looks like, one town over. Kure Beach and Carolina Beach released their full records — naming the agencies that search their cameras — on the same request, within days. Wrightsville Beach can still match them by producing the Network and Organization Audits it has withheld. Until it does, the who-searched record is the missing piece.
Compare
- Kure Beach and Carolina Beach — what a full production looks like.
- The records hub — the Wrightsville Beach correspondence, in full.
What you can do
Sign the petition Email your leaders
The New Hanover County Commissioners decide these contracts — find the next public meeting.
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.