Seventeen North Carolina communities have already said no to Flock. Add your name › · The Cape Fear is under warrantless AI surveillance — it’s time to act.
Statewide tracker
Flock in North Carolina
Wilmington isn’t alone. Across North Carolina, towns are reading the contracts, hearing their residents, and pulling the plug. Here’s where the state stands — who said no, who’s deciding now, and where the cameras already watch. We keep this honest and sourced; tell us what we’ve missed.
Last updated November 1, 2026
Happening now · Week of Nov 2, 2026
The votes are landing — and going our way. In two days, two North Carolina boards said no. On Aug 24, Davidson County commissioners voted unanimously to remove the Sheriff’s 25-camera program — cameras off within a day, down within 30. On Aug 25, Asheville‘s City Council voted 5–2 to terminate its Flock contract and remove all 11 city cameras (APD has already lost Flock access) — while leaving APD’s plan to swap in Axon readers to a Sept. 8 staff study, a vendor swap we’re watching. Closer to home, the New Hanover County commissioners take the $219,000 Flock contract back up on September 21, and DeFlockILM is organizing residents to show up. And in New Hanover, Carolina Beach’s Town Council meets Sept. 8 at 6 PM — we’re urging everyone to come speak. Fourteen North Carolina cities were named in DeFlock’s August Week of Action — the widest coordinated pushback the state has seen, and it is still compounding town by town.
One town reads the fine print, cancels, and tells the next town how. That’s how this ends.
Looking for the cameras rather than the politics? Our North Carolina camera map shows where the 2,819 mapped ALPR readers are, county by county — and the full ranking breaks out which counties have the most by raw count and which are the densest per capita. New to this? Start with what Flock cameras can actually do — and what they can’t.
Ready to act? Sign the petition for your community at our directory of North Carolina Flock petitions — a dozen local petitions from Charlotte to the coast, plus our Cape Fear petition. Signing your county’s tells your own board where residents stand.
The statewide backdrop. Three things frame every local fight below. First, the baseline: under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-183.30 et seq., a local agency may operate ALPRs only if it has adopted a written policy and complies with the retention limits — the statutory hook behind the campaign’s campus findings. Second, the 2026 state budget — S.L. 2026-41 (S257), signed July 7, 2026 — made the SBI/NCDOT highway plate-reader pilot permanent and added an annual report to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Justice and Public Safety. And the UNC School of Government flags what moved the other way in the same bill: it repealed G.S. 143B-903, the statute that required collecting the race and sex of every driver stopped. In one budget, North Carolina expanded automated surveillance of all drivers and ended mandatory demographic reporting on traffic stops. (S257, enrolled) Third, the vendor reset the baseline: on Aug. 13, 2026 Flock’s CEO apologized for law-enforcement misuse and announced company-wide changes due by year’s end — default retention cut from 30 days to 7, a case code required before every search, and a mandatory anomalous-search flagging tool — after a Washington Post investigation found officers accused of improper access in 46 Flock cases, many involving stalking. The ACLU called the retention cut “a step in the right direction” while cautioning it may prove a PR move depending on how “Evidence Mode” operates. That 7-day figure is now the number every NC board — including this one — will hold its sheriff to. (CBS News) Fourth, the courts are moving — and North Carolina sits in the crosshairs. In Chatrie v. United States (June 29, 2026), the U.S. Supreme Court held 6–3 that a geofence location request is a Fourth Amendment search requiring a warrant — and Schmidt v. City of Norfolk, the Flock-specific Fourth Amendment challenge, is now pending in the Fourth Circuit — the federal appeals court that governs North Carolina. Because NC law requires no warrant for an ALPR search, a Fourth Circuit ruling in Schmidt would land on every board on this page at once.
New — portal directory: we now maintain a directory of every North Carolina Flock transparency portal — a link to each, and whether it actually lets the public download the search audit. Most don’t.
The win column
North Carolina Communities That Said No
Each of these started where Wilmington is now — with a signed contract and a worried public. Then they ended it.
| Status | Locality | What’s happening |
|---|---|---|
| Defunded | Macon County (county-level) | Following a discussion with Sheriff Brent Holbrooks, commissioners voted 5–0 on July 15, 2026 to discontinue the $47,000 funding Flock Safety cameras — Commissioner John Shearl moved to “de-Flock Macon County” by opting out of the contract at renewal, then made a second, unanimous motion to remove the cameras (the renewal vote alone did not mandate removal). Sheriff Holbrooks testified the cameras log 1 to 3 million plates a month in a county of ~37,000. Nine days earlier, that same Sheriff’s Office had publicly defended the program. Read the mechanism closely: the board did not cancel the Sheriff’s contract — it ended the appropriation. A county commission holds the money. New Hanover’s board holds the same power over its own $219,000 — roughly 4.7 times what Macon walked away from. (Our analysis: why the mechanism matters.) Update — July 16. WLOS has now published a web article, so this no longer rests on a Facebook post. It also adds facts, and one of them narrows what we said. Twelve county-owned cameras come down immediately — even though the Flock contract does not expire until October. But four cameras on school property will remain, and privately owned Flock cameras in the county are unaffected. This is not “every camera in Macon County.” It is the Sheriff’s Office’s twelve, pulled early, at the Board’s direction. Chief Deputy Derek Jones pushed back after the vote, conceded crime could rise but that he “can’t give you 100%,” and said the office “will respect the view of the public.” Update — July 28. The fallout has taken an ugly turn worth naming plainly. Officials in the Town of Franklin (the Macon County seat) publicly asked residents to stop threatening public officials over Flock, and cleared up a point of confusion: the Town of Franklin has no Flock contract and no plans for one — the July 15 defunding was a county action. We condemn threats of any kind, without reservation. This is exactly why the work belongs at the podium and in the public records, never in someone’s inbox — change came from the appropriation vote, not intimidation, and it always will. (WLOS) On sourcing: first reported by the Smoky Mountain News Facebook page, corroborated by WLOS on July 16, and now documented in full in SMN’s July 22 web article by a reporter who attended — which settles the vote date as July 15, 2026. Whether the $47,000 is annual or the full contract is still not established. Note: Carolina Public Press (Aug 24, 2026) circulates July 14 and six remaining school cameras; we keep the on-scene SMN reporter’s account (July 15, four school cameras) and flag the discrepancy rather than let it sit. |
| Canceled | Hillsborough (Orange Co.) | Ended its two-year, ~$81,500 contract for 10 cameras by unanimous vote in late October 2025, citing Flock’s broad data-sharing terms — the same “good-faith belief” disclosure language in our county’s contract. (Town of Hillsborough) |
| Canceled | Pittsboro (Chatham Co.) | Board of Commissioners voted 4–1 on May 11, 2026 to terminate the contract, with all cameras removed no later than July 1, 2026; local reporting confirms the cameras were switched off ahead of that deadline. Read the sequence closely, because this is the part that transfers. Mayor Kyle Shipp moved first to keep the system through the January 2027 contract end with conditions attached: no new cameras without board approval, standing bans on traffic enforcement, immigration enforcement, reproductive-care investigations, facial recognition and monitoring gatherings, 30-day retention, monthly internal audits, public reporting, and a board review before expiration. That motion failed. Only then did Commissioner Candace Hunziker move to terminate outright and bar FY2026-27 funds from continuing it, seconded by Commissioner John Bonitz, approved 4–1. Pittsboro was offered the guardrails-and-keep compromise and turned it down before it chose cancellation — any board being sold “we’ll just add a policy” should know a North Carolina town already tried that motion and voted it down. On sourcing: WRAL reported the vote 4–2; the Chatham Journal, citing the town’s official release, reports 4–1, which we use. The Journal names Mayor Kyle Shipp and Mayor Pro Tem Jay Farrell as favoring continuation under tighter controls but does not state who cast the single dissenting vote, so we do not name the dissenter until the minutes confirm it. (Chatham Journal · WRAL · Chapelboro) |
| Canceled | Chatham County (county-level) | The county board voted in April 2026 to remove its own Flock cameras — a county action distinct from Pittsboro’s town contract — leaving Pittsboro as the last holdout in the county before it, too, voted to terminate. (Hoodline · Chatham Journal) |
A note on geography: Hillsborough sits in Orange County and Pittsboro in Chatham County — the Triangle’s Orange–Chatham corridor, where Flock has met the most organized resistance in the state. Hillsborough and Pittsboro were town votes; in Chatham, the county board also voted to pull its own cameras — the corridor has now rejected Flock at both the town and county level. Macon County breaks that pattern — it sits in the far western mountains, a five-hour drive from Chatham, and its commissioners voted 5–0. This is no longer a Triangle story, and it is no longer a story about towns.
Decided now
Where the Fight Is Live
| Status | Locality | What’s happening |
|---|---|---|
| Canceled | Wilmington / New Hanover Co. | WON — Sept 8, 2026: the Board of Commissioners voted unanimously, 4-0 to terminate the county’s Flock contract, on a motion by Vice Chair Dane Scalise, who moved to cancel rather than pause — “that’s what the community wants us to do.” Chair LeAnn Pierce said “safeguards are not in place to protect citizens at this time”; Commissioner Rob Zapple was “uncomfortable with the power of mass surveillance.” The $219,000 contract covered 36 cameras and would have run to 2027. Update — Sept 8: the Sheriff’s Office began immediately ending access — national sharing disabled, employee access removed, Flock notified to terminate, SBI notified — and the county-owned cameras are already deactivated, with Flock to remove them; state-run cameras (incl. I-40) are unaffected. (WECT, Sept. 8 · Port City Daily · WWAY: access ending) How it got here: New Hanover County held the $219,000 Flock contract, which the Sheriff’s Office operates; DeFlockILM is organizing residents, and the petition has passed 4,000 signatures. The scale is not abstract: a WECT investigation found the Sheriff’s Office’s 19 cameras on state roads captured more than 35 million plates in about seven months. Update — late July 2026: the board that holds the money is publicly wavering. In a WECT investigation, Chair LeAnn Pierce said she is “concerned” and wants answers before backing future funding; Commissioner Dane Scalise said “we’re gonna get to the bottom of whether or not Flock cameras are right for New Hanover County,” and told WWAY that residents “are asking completely legitimate questions about these cameras and deserve a transparent review and discussion by the Commission” — a commissioner publicly committing the board to a review; Commissioner Rob Zapple said his “eyebrows are raised.” The same reporting revealed Sheriff McMahon emailed county leaders a memo (subject line “flock”) defending the program — he wrote the data is “retained for a limited period… before being automatically purged unless it becomes part of an active criminal investigation” and that the cameras are “not intended to function as a surveillance system” — which we obtained and answered with the county’s own records. That makes Aug 17 less a routine comment period than a likely board discussion — the same appropriation lever Macon County pulled to defund. Update — Aug. 4, 2026: a new WECT investigation into how the Sheriff’s system is used reports the Office is developing a public transparency portal, and that DeFlock critics are expected to speak at the Aug. 17 commissioners meeting. (WECT, Aug. 4) Update — Aug. 10, 2026: a week before the meeting, Sheriff McMahon read a prepared statement announcing policy changes — retention cut from 90 days to 30, a monthly internal audit (up from annual), and a live public Flock transparency portal (which lists 19 cameras — one of the 20 was stolen, later recovered, no arrests — and 774,174 unique reads in 30 days). He then declined to take questions. The changes are real — and unilateral; camera locations remain undisclosed, and the network audit of which agencies have searched the system is still not released. (WECT, Aug. 10 · the county’s Flock portal) Update — Aug. 14, 2026: three days before the meeting — and one day after Flock’s CEO recommended a 7-day default — the Sheriff’s Office said it is reevaluating the 30-day retention it had just set. Sheriff McMahon: “North Carolina law establishes the maximum; our responsibility is to determine what retention period best serves our community.” A stated review, not yet a change — 30 days still stands. (WECT · WWAY) Update — Aug. 17, 2026 (the meeting): the chamber was packed and dozens spoke against Flock — not one in favor; opponents rallied outside the courthouse first. No vote was taken. Chair LeAnn Pierce said commissioners hope to have answers to their own questions before discussing the program again on September 21 — the first board-stated return date. Update — Sept 3: WECT reports the Board could take Flock up earlier still, at its Sept. 17 agenda-review meeting, four days ahead of the Sept 21 discussion — a second touchpoint to watch. Update — Sept 4, 2026: the StarNews reports Sheriff McMahon, answering County Manager Chris Coudriet, confirmed in an Aug. 12 email how the national network works: a qualifying search by an out-of-state agency “may also query participating cameras in New Hanover County,” and local cameras need not return anything relevant for outside agencies to reach them — the one-search-reaches-everywhere design, described by the official who opted in (726,459 unique plates logged in August). A commissioner conceded on the record: “I don’t believe that any of us were aware of what the contract had to say … you brought light, you brought life to that with your testimony today.” (WECT, Aug. 17 · Port City Daily) Update — Sept 15–21, 2026: read the fine print — it’s an amendment, not a full stop. The CFO’s Sept 9 refund letter confirms the 4-0 vote decommissioned only the 17 Falcon + 3 Solar Falcon plate readers — the 8 Condor PTZ cameras in county parks are explicitly excluded and remain active. Flock has only acknowledged the cancellation, not agreed to the $53,571.43 refund the county requested, and physical removal of the readers could take up to two months. DeFlockILM’s Mark Williams called it “an amendment, not a cancellation” — the plate-reader win is real, but the Condors and the follow-through are unfinished. (Port City Daily · WECT · our breakdown) (Where each commissioner stands · WECT · Where to speak next) |
| No program | Leland (Brunswick Co.) | Flock pitched Leland hard — an in-person demo at Town Hall (June 11, 2025), a $180,700 budgetary quote (Q-146418: 8 Falcon plate readers, 10 ‘Condor’ solar video cameras, FreeForm AI plain-language search, Nova OSINT), and a presentation to the Town Council on Dec 15, 2025. But in response to our public-records request, Town Clerk Sabrena Reinhardt confirmed on Aug 25, 2026 that Leland “does not currently have an automated license plate reader program in place.” The pitch is on the record; the purchase is not — and Leland’s council still holds the one thing New Hanover’s never used: the chance to say no before the cameras go up. (The Leland records, read out) |
| Contested | Apex (Wake Co.) | A resident-led campaign — DeFlock Apex — is pressing to block renewal of the police department’s 10-camera Flock contract, which expires January 2027. On June 9 the Town Council voted unanimously to refer ALPR policy to its Public Safety Committee; organizers count a one-vote margin. The group has published records showing data-sharing grew past 1,000 organizations and that 26% of APD searches had no documented reason. Its July 12, 2026 audit counts 15,335 department searches of the plate network in a year (July 2025–June 2026) by 31 operators (DeFlock Apex audit). Update — August 5. No ALPR item is on the Aug 11 Town Council agenda, the policy is still sitting in Public Safety Committee, and the 10-camera expansion contract remains unsigned. DeFlock Apex is now demanding the committee meet in open session, with public comment — not decide behind a closed door. The group also pulled FBI crime data for Apex back to 2011: as the town nearly doubled in population, its crime rate fell about 40% — and Apex bought its first Flock cameras in 2023, at the lowest crime levels the town has ever recorded. Whatever made Apex safe, the cameras arrived after it happened. The comparison writes itself. Apex disclosed that two federal agencies — the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and a U.S. Air Force base police unit (almost certainly Wright-Patterson) — had been enabled for data sharing by mistake. Those are two of the six federal agencies the New Hanover County Sheriff says he shares with on purpose (his written answers). One town calls it an error; our county calls it policy — the same two federal doors, opened deliberately here. Update — Aug 27, 2026: a decision date is set. Town staff scheduled the two-member Public Safety Committee for Oct. 1 (rescheduled from Sept. 24) to produce a recommendation to the full Council. Mayor Jacques Gilbert, a committee member, framed three options on the record: keep Flock, switch ALPR vendors, or end ALPRs in Apex entirely. A separate public-safety drone-software agreement was sent back for further review. With the contract expiring January 2027, the Oct. 1 meeting is the decision point. Update — the audit that arrived. Five weeks after a records request, Apex produced its Flock Network Audit, and DeFlock Apex’s analysis of it is the clearest federal-access record in the state: two federal accounts — the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (9,683 searches) and Wright-Patterson AFB (17) — queried Apex cameras between Jan. 2 and Apr. 1, 2026, including 166 searches on January 29, the very day the Chief told Council “we do not share with federal entities, hard stop.” As DeFlock Apex puts it, a federal agency “never needed a share — it needed an officer to run a plate.” Their audit also exposes the portal-vs-reality gap we document in the Cape Fear: Apex’s public transparency portal showed 144 searches for a 30-day window while the real Organization Audit showed 868, and Council was told “~1,000 agencies” when the audits show 3,587 distinct outside organizations queried Apex cameras. (DeFlock Apex · CBS17) Update — Oct. 1, 2026: the two-member Public Safety Committee met and took no action. Mayor Jacques Gilbert said “we’re not there yet.” APD cited a 60% drop in vehicle theft. The committee resumes Dec. 3 and will then make a recommendation to the full Council; the contract expires January 2027. (ABC11) Update — Oct. 19, 2026: Councilman Edward Gray is hosting a resident community forum on Thursday, Oct. 22, 5 PM at Apex Town Hall — open Q&A, no staff presentation — before the committee’s recommendation. (WRAL) Update — Oct. 28, 2026: WRAL now reports the Public Safety Committee’s recommendation meeting is Dec. 3 (not Nov. 5); the 10-camera contract expires Jan. 31, 2027. (WRAL) |
| Canceled | Asheville (Buncombe Co.) | WON — Aug 25, 2026. After more than an hour of heated public comment, the City Council voted 5–2 to terminate the city’s Flock contract, remove all 11 cameras, suspend all city access, searching, and sharing of Flock data, handle existing data per retention law, and conduct a comprehensive review with policy recommendations on future surveillance oversight. The 5–2 dissenters were Council members Antanette Mosley and Sheneika Smith, who objected to removing a police tool without a replacement. The Council expressly rejected ending all ALPR use: the Axon dash-mounted readers on police cruisers stay, under a ~$73,000 contract Council approved in May 2026 (otherwise running through Jan 2027) — so this is an early termination. The ratio is the whole vendor-swap argument: APD runs 162 Axon in-car ALPR cameras against the 11 stationary Flock ones the Council just terminated — so the Aug 25 vote removed roughly 6% of the city’s plate-reader fleet, and the Axon system has been scanning since April 2024, ten months before Flock went live. Councilmember Kim Roney, who drove the cancellation, warned before the vote that ending Flock “is not enough” if it’s replaced with a similar system, and urged residents to press for ending all ALPR use — the name to watch on the Sept. 8 review. Speaker Jen Hampton called it “a total bait and switch — the same exact police state, just with a different corporate logo.” The scale check: the city’s 11 cameras are a fraction of the 86 Flock cameras across Buncombe County (per interim Chief Jackie Stepp‘s memo), so canceling the city contract leaves the rest — including cameras on Asheville City Schools property — in place. The city manager’s staff study on remaining ALPR use lands Sept. 8, and APD has already lost access to Flock software. Primary docs: the Stepp memo, the Flock contract, and BPR’s recap. The open question the resolution does not resolve: APD’s plan to replace Flock with Axon ALPRs now lives inside that review — a vendor swap would keep the warrantless-surveillance problem under a new name. (Carolina Public Press · WLOS) Prior context: City Council moved ahead amid hours of packed public comment — roughly 11 city cameras plus private feeds, and a front-row seat to the statewide bill. Update — the cameras were the beginning, not the end. APD is building a Real-Time Intelligence Center on Fusus software, funded by more than $1.1 million in federal money the City Council approved in May 2026, expected fully operational by spring or summer 2027. It pulls Flock plate readers, body cameras, in-car cameras, drones, and voluntarily shared business and residential cameras into what APD’s technology manager calls “one pane of glass.” Read the oversight closely: searches are audited quarterly, internally only — APD confirmed on the record the reviews are not conducted outside the department, and that misuse could become a personnel matter shielded from disclosure under North Carolina law. APD says it blocks search terms tied to immigration and reproductive issues, sets Flock retention to 30 days against the statutory 90-day ceiling, and will not share with federal agencies “short of a court order.” Those are real commitments, made by this administration, reviewable by no one outside it. Update — Aug. 6, 2026: APD put numbers on the oversight — 18 of roughly 200 officers hold search access, every search requires a documented reason, a lieutenant runs quarterly audits (the most recent found 100% compliance), retention is 30 days, and Council approved the $1.14 million RTIC grant on May 12, 2026. (828newsNOW) (WLOS News 13 Investigates, July 8, 2026) Update — Aug. 7, 2026: a Flock camera at Carrier Park on Amboy Road was vandalized — the lens painted over and the camera pulled from its post (since reinstalled); an APD forensics team collected evidence. It is the second WNC vandalism case in a month, after Rutherfordton. (WLOS, Aug. 7) |
| Contested | Garner (Wake Co.) | Residents are pressing the Town Council over a proposed multi-year, ~$449,375 Flock contract — questioning audit logs, data access, and past misuse — at the June 16 public-comment period. (Town of Garner · INDY Week) |
| Contested | Madison County | Residents organized against Flock (the Sheriff’s Office has used it since ~March) — and at a June meeting the board chair refused to let them speak individually: “You will not speak on Flock tonight.” Reporting puts the Sheriff’s use at about 1,200 database searches in a 60-day window — in a county of roughly 20,000 people. (404 Media) We have since sent the Sheriff three public-records demand letters on residents’ behalf. The Sheriff’s own July 14, 2026 production puts the network at 3,302 searches across 33 offense categories — on a system the County only signed for in February. A resident group, madisonforprivacy.org, now documents the Sheriff’s records refusals — which it contends violate the Public Records Law — and organizes public comment at the Board of Commissioners. One fact the calendar makes relevant: Sheriff Buddy Harwood is up for reelection this year. Update — Aug 24, 2026 (Carolina Public Press). Records obtained by CPP put hard numbers on it: the county runs 12 Flock cameras — down from 17, after the Sheriff’s Office quietly amended its contract in June to remove five (about $30,000/yr). The network reaches 1,500+ agencies and shares data with 725. The office also runs separate Rekor Systems ALPR software, contracted since 2021 — a second vendor predating Flock. When Madison for Privacy requested the Flock contract, the county produced only the signature page, and the Sheriff told CPP that Flock, not the county, holds some of the records — the same custody dodge we have documented elsewhere. Board chair Michael Garrison ran the June “you will not speak” meeting; Commissioner Alan Wyatt has expressed interest in learning more — a possible first swing vote. (Carolina Public Press · Madison for Privacy · See the letters and what’s still missing) |
| Contested | Southern Pines (Moore Co.) | At a June 23, 2026 work session the Town Council questioned its 8-camera Flock program as potentially “too intrusive.” Police Chief Nick Polidori acknowledged he was unaware of any independent audit of Flock and that his own agency had never audited the company. The council agreed to keep the conversation going. Update — the July 28 work session passed with no reported ALPR action (local coverage notes only a social-district approval); we’re watching the town’s minutes for any Flock item. (Sandhills Sentinel) |
| Contested | Moore County | Distinct from the Southern Pines town program (above), the county is now contested. At the Aug. 4, 2026 Board of Commissioners meeting, residents used public comment to press the board to reconsider the county’s Flock program — among them Southern Pines resident Megan Spearing, an Air Force veteran and former imagery analyst, who framed ALPR “pattern of life” tracking as a national-security risk to Special Forces personnel living in the county. No vote was taken; Commissioner Kurt Cook said members are doing their own research, and Chairman Nick Picerno announced a special public meeting with the Sheriff on Aug. 17 at 4:00 p.m., inviting residents to submit questions to the clerk in advance. Confirmed — primary source: the county’s own public notice (posted Aug. 11 by Clerk to the Board Jennifer Parks) settles it — a Special Meeting, Aug. 17, 4:00 p.m., in the Grand Hall, Moore County Senior Enrichment Center, 8040 U.S. 15, West End (not the Rick Rhyne Public Safety Center some outlets still list), with a single stated purpose: “FLOCK Cameras.” This is not a line in a broader work session — Flock is the sole agenda item. (Moore County notice · Sandhills Sentinel · Star 102.5) Update — Aug. 17–18, 2026: the special meeting (sole agenda item: Flock) adjourned early amid shouting from the floor (“You didn’t even inform us, you just put them up!”) after the Sheriff’s Office asked that some attendees be escorted out; there was no formal public-comment period, so residents were directed to the regular meeting on Aug. 18. New figures from the Sheriff: 10 Flock cameras across ~700 sq. mi. plus access to 23 municipal cameras; the system figured in 31 law-enforcement matters in July; and the office concedes 99% of vehicles captured are never connected to an investigation. On retention, Moore says it prefers to keep 30 days rather than adopt Flock’s new 7-day default — the first NC agency to decline the vendor’s number outright. DeFlock Moore County now counts 350+ members. The counter-case, same county, same week: the Sheriff’s Office charged Demetrius Louis Aggelis, 40, with three murders in the Pinebluff triple homicide, saying a Flock camera less than a mile away captured his vehicle heading to and from the home — the most consequential NC case yet attributed to ALPR evidence, and a reminder the fight is about cost and oversight, not whether the tool can ever help. (WRAL · CBS17) Update — early Oct. 2026: a formal review committee. Commissioners created a Moore County Flock Camera Committee — Commissioner Kurt Cook, Chief Deputy Eric Galloway, and citizens — to review a camera demonstration, the data collected, and how it is used. Chairman Nick Picerno said the board would consider ending the program if residents’ concerns are borne out. A review, not a cancellation vote; no meeting date set. (Sandhills Sentinel) |
| Canceled | Davidson County (Lexington/Thomasville) | WON — Aug 24, 2026. The Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to terminate the Sheriff’s Office 25-camera Flock program — all cameras deactivated and removed within 30 days (WUNC). Several commissioners who had approved it in Oct 2024 said they changed their minds. Year one ran $90,750 on federal forfeiture funds, ~$76,000/yr after; that money will now fund a mobile command unit instead. Sheriff Richie Simmons had defended the cameras for recovering stolen vehicles and finding missing people. (WUNC · FOX8) Prior context: A resident campaign, DeFlock Davidson County — propelled by a widely viewed video series from resident Mary Todd Boone — is pressing commissioners to end the program. The Sheriff’s Office runs 25 cameras (Lexington PD and Thomasville PD run their own separately). The county approved it unanimously on the consent agenda, Oct. 14, 2024, after the Sheriff’s early-October request — no standalone debate, the same appropriation posture Macon County later reversed. Speakers Mike Price and Benjamin Dosroches addressed the board Aug. 10, and commissioners have set Aug. 24, 2026 to decide the program’s future — now reported by two outlets, though the county’s own agenda was not yet posted as of Aug. 16. The 25-camera program costs the county about $76,000 a year to maintain. (FOX8 WGHP · ABC45 · HPE News) |
| Contested | Erwin (Harnett Co.) | A new town program, now publicly contested. 11 Flock cameras cover Erwin’s intersections and main entrances at $3,500 per camera per year — $38,500 for a town with an 11-officer department. Opposition surfaced organically on a local Facebook group (“get them out of here,” resident Mary Henkes); one resident flagged a camera sited next to her children’s daycare. Police Chief Jonathan Johnson says the department audits usage weekly and credits the system with one arrest via cross-referencing home-surveillance footage. No vote and no agenda item yet — public sentiment only. (ABC11/WTVD, Aug. 12) |
| Contested | Boone (Watauga Co.) | Town Council paused all expansion of its Flock system and ordered a public transparency portal — and as of July 2026 the portal is live. Out-of-state data sharing has been eliminated (except a handful of Tennessee agencies), quarterly audits of officer searches are now formalized, and the system captures only plate, make, model, and color. A partial win: the cameras stay, but the public finally gets the receipts. DeFlock’s map now counts 19 cameras in Boone (up from the ~15 previously described); Boone PD also credits a Flock alert with the July 2, 2026 arrest of a South Carolina murder suspect at the Watauga County Rec Center — the result the department cites for keeping the system. (Boone PD portal · Watauga Democrat) |
| Active | West Jefferson (Ashe Co.) | A Flock ALPR is up near the Lowe’s in West Jefferson. At the Board of Aldermen’s July 2026 meeting, police told the board a Flock camera had assisted an ongoing larceny investigation — a police report to the elected board, not a vote, with no contract figure or camera count disclosed. It puts Ashe County on the map. (Ashe Post & Times) |
| Contested | Jackson County (Sylva / Cullowhee) | Under public review after residents pressed the board. At an Aug. 4, 2026 work session, Sheriff Doug Farmer briefed commissioners to answer questions and rebut what he called “misconceptions” — no vote taken. His own numbers, for June 30–July 30: 4 cameras (2 in state right-of-way, 2 on private property), 1.19 million reads, 563 searches, and 4,652 hotlist hits, with data shared to 280 agencies inside North Carolina. Farmer conceded enforcement cannot rest on an ALPR image alone. (Sylva Herald) |
| Guardrails | Rockingham County | Guardrails, not cameras — the preventive model. On Sept. 8, 2026 the Board of Commissioners unanimously adopted an ordinance regulating the installation of ALPR systems, Flock included. Any future camera request must come before the commissioners with public comment, and any governing policy must be posted publicly 14 days before a hearing. The county runs no cameras and holds no contract today; Chairman Houston Barrow said the rule grew out of a prior ALPR request staff had quietly declined, which “would have just went right under the rug.” The decision made in the open — before the cameras, not after. (FOX8 WGHP) |
| Contested | Henderson County (Hendersonville) | A resident-led campaign has formed — the fourth county-level citizen effort on this page, after New Hanover, Apex, Madison, and Moore. Austin Rhodes, a 30-year-old berry farmer from Edneyville, started a DeFlock Henderson County Facebook page and a Change.org petition that has passed 2,000 signatures (double its original goal; a rival ‘increase funding for Flock’ petition is also live), and he has already addressed the Board of Commissioners urging them not to renew. The effort is cross-ideological and now has two co-founders — Rhodes and Tiernan Turner, a 30-year-old progressive HVAC mechanic — who first met on opposite sides of the aisle at the Aug 3 Board of Commissioners meeting (neither had ever given public comment before) and formed the group afterward; PERSIST of Henderson County, a progressive organizing group, has since joined — its Tom Shantz, an organizer of the county’s “No Kings” and “Hands Off” rallies, filed his own public-records requests to Chief Blair Myhand and Sheriff Lowell Griffin (both unanswered) and calls Flock the only nonpartisan issue his group works on. The agencies’ own numbers are now on record: Hendersonville PD runs 15 Flock cameras (3 since mid-2024, the other 12 installed Nov 2025) at ~$3,000 each per year, about $45,000 total (Chief Blair Myhand) — and, at the Sept. 8, 2026 commissioners meeting, more than a dozen residents spoke against the cameras over an hour, with no vote taken, and the Henderson County Sheriff runs 13 (Sheriff Lowell Griffin) — 28 agency-owned, against DeFlock’s crowdsourced 33–39 countywide (the gap is Fletcher and Laurel Park). A key mechanism finding: Myhand and County Chair Bill Lapsley both confirm Flock money is not a line item earmarked by the city or county — the opposite of Macon and Davidson, where the appropriation was the lever — so Rhodes now asks the boards to bar funds from going to cameras rather than ‘defund’ wages or training. Two meetings: the Hendersonville City Council heard Chief Myhand’s Flock presentation on Sept. 3 — he defended the 15 cameras (“there is no surveillance. There is no tracking of movement”; an ALPR read is “only an investigative lead … not probable cause”), conceded “human beings make mistakes,” and took no vote; residents held protest signs in the chamber (the county’s first documented in-chamber sign protest). His “no tracking of movement” claim sits against the New Hanover audit numbers on this page — a single search reaching thousands of networks is exactly the movement-reconstruction the claim denies. At the Henderson County Board of Commissioners meeting on Sept. 8 (5:15 p.m., historic courthouse, downtown Hendersonville), the coalition called for defunding and removal; no vote was taken. (WLOS, Sept. 3) On the record, Myhand keeps no count of crimes solved with Flock (“at least dozens though fewer than 100”) while citing larcenies down 25% since Oct 2025; Griffin cites, since 2023, 4 homicide arrests, 8 missing or runaway people returned, 1 arrest for sexual assault of a minor, and $200,000 in recovered property, and stated Aug 12 that the county’s cameras provide no live video, facial recognition, or camera-to-camera tracking. (Cardinal & Pine / Hendersonville Times-News, Aug. 18 · petition) Update — Aug. 18, 2026: In a detailed defense, Griffin credited Flock in a child-abuse death investigation (baby Luna), an April Dana Park shooting, a 2023 murder, and a South Carolina murder-suspect apprehension, and denied the network integrates with Palantir, traces cell signals, or shares data with ICE (“Flock does not contract with ICE”), calling the system CJIS-compliant and saying the county “owns its data and controls who it is shared with.” That last claim is the one our New Hanover audits rebut: an out-of-state agency can query a North Carolina agency’s cameras through data-sharing with no local approval or knowledge — the owner does not, in practice, control who searches. (Hendersonville Lightning) |
| Contested | Carolina Beach (New Hanover Co.) | The beach town runs five Flock plate readers — produced in full, and its own records show them searched about three million times in a single quarter, overwhelmingly by out-of-state agencies (our analysis). The Town Council meets monthly (second Tuesday, 6:00 PM — Council Chambers, 1121 N. Lake Park Blvd); public comment is open to any resident. Only the Town Council can remove these — New Hanover County’s Sept 8 cancellation does not reach them. (Details & how to speak · where to speak next) |
| Canceled | Kitty Hawk (Dare Co.) | Program wound down (Sept 8, 2026). At the Town Council meeting, Police Chief Michael Palkovics said the town’s plate-reader program has ended — the last camera was shut off in August 2026 — and he is not seeking to restart it. Presentation only; no vote needed. (Outer Banks Voice) |
| Canceled | Kill Devil Hills & Dare County (Outer Banks). WON — Sept 1, 2026: the Dare County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to remove the Sheriff’s Office’s 14 Flock cameras at seven locations — not merely switch them off — after nearly two hours of public comment (14 of 15 speakers opposed) and a Sheriff’s presentation the agenda had listed as informational only. Sheriff Doug Doughtie told the board, “If you vote to take them down today, they’ll come down just that quick” — and took no side: “We don’t have a penny in this fight … whether we should keep them or not — that’s apparently your job.” Commissioner Carson Creef called it “a bipartisan issue” and said Dare law enforcement “did a beyond excellent job before we had Flock cameras, and I think they’ll do a beyond excellent job without them”; Commissioner Steve House warned that leaving the cameras up but unused would not do — “I can already feel that the public does not trust us.” Commissioner Mike Burrus said the system “infringes on taking our freedom,” and Commissioner Rob Ross conceded it is “still viewed as an egregious overstep by government”; Aida Havel, a Democratic candidate for the board, also spoke against. The paid annual lease will not be renewed, and the cameras come down within about two weeks. In its final 30-day window the Sheriff’s system logged 324,884 unique vehicles, 42 searches, and 110 NCIC alerts. Municipal readers remain — KDH PD’s 6 readers and other town cameras sit outside the county board’s control — so the county is not yet Flock-free; DeFlock Dare is pressing the six towns next. (Island Free Press · WTKR) Prior context: Dare counts 48 ALPR cameras countywide — the most reader-dense county in North Carolina (12.55 per 10,000 residents). At the Aug 17 KDH commissioners meeting, members criticized Flock from the dais; KDH police disclosed 6 readers in 3 locations, 30-day retention, and have not activated a Flock transparency portal. The new group DeFlock Dare (organizer Andrea O’Donnell) has a removal petition past 750 signatures — demanding full removal plus a public hearing before any future ALPR contract — and sent a 30-day disclosure demand to the County Board, all six town governments, and the county’s legislative delegation. Next: three Outer Banks bodies take it up this week — the Dare County Commissioners hear a Sheriff’s Flock presentation Sept. 1, and both Nags Head and Kitty Hawk held Flock briefings on Sept. 2 — Nags Head a presentation by Police Chief Perry Hale, Kitty Hawk a workshop with Police Chief Michael Palkovics. Nags Head deferred action on Sept. 2 — no vote, no return date — after Police Chief Perry Hale called the town’s 12 Flock cameras (installed early 2024) a “great tool” while signaling willingness to further restrict data access or stand up a review panel; Commissioner Molly Harrison said “the public needs reassurance about this system” and Commissioner Megan Lambert “definitely want[ed] to hear more” when Mayor Ben Cahoon asked whether the board was ready to act (Outer Banks Voice); the Kitty Hawk Town Council takes up Police Chief Michael Palkovics’s ALPR presentation Tue., Sept. 8, 6 p.m. (Outer Banks Voice). Neither noticed a vote. A different Flock footprint: the Town of Duck Police Department runs a Flock Home Camera Program — residents register their private security cameras, which are pinned on the department’s Flock-hosted camera map so officers can request footage; the registry data sits in Flock’s cloud as “protected non-public data.” It is exactly the kind of footprint the county’s removal vote does not reach. The town’s page has since come down; it survives in the Wayback Machine, and we’ve preserved a copy at the Internet Archive. Reporting notes none of the five Dare agencies using Flock has a public transparency portal — the same gap DeFlockILM documented in New Hanover. | Dare County (Outer Banks) — organizing: DeFlock Dare |
| Contested | Granville County (Oxford) | At the July 6, 2026 Board of Commissioners meeting, Sheriff Robert Fountain reportedly asked that a 10-camera Flock proposal — a 2-year contract intended to run at least 5 years, integrated with the statewide network — be pulled from the agenda for further community discussion. We have not independently verified this. Our only source is DeFlockNC.org; no news outlet has reported it and the county has not posted minutes. Treat it as a lead, not a confirmed fact. Update — August 5. We searched the county’s own News Flash feed directly. In the month since July 6, Granville County has published nothing mentioning Flock, ALPRs, license plate readers, or cameras. The silence is not evidence either way — but a proposal pulled “for community discussion” has produced no visible community discussion in thirty days. (DeFlockNC (unverified) · Granville County News Flash) |
| Contested | Rutherford County | Now an organized fight, with a date. Public radio (WNCW, Aug 28) confirms what was previously an unverified lead: Jonathan Terry — a land surveyor, pastor, and lifelong county resident — has a petition asking commissioners to suspend the county’s Flock contract, at 343 signatures in 15 days (goal 500). His figures: 32–33 cameras countywide at roughly $80,000–$99,000 a year — money he argues would instead fund two deputies. The petition was expected before the Board of Commissioners around Sept. 8, 2026. Update: the posted Sept. 8 agenda and the meeting recap covered Helene finance and a new county manager’s swearing-in with no Flock item — so the petition is not yet formally acted on; we’re treating it as pending until the minutes confirm. One number to reconcile: Terry’s 32–33 cameras is four times the 8-camera figure in the earlier (CitizenPortal.ai) county proposal by Sheriff Aaron Hellenburg and Det. Brian Bailey — these may be two different things (existing municipal/sheriff deployments vs. a new county ask); the county minutes should settle it. Distinct from the Rutherfordton town PD program already active (below). (WNCW) |
| Adopting | Cherokee County (Murphy) | A county moving toward Flock, not away. Sheriff Chris Wood confirms plans to install 8 Flock ALPRs, funded from money already set aside in the Sheriff’s budget before he took office; he campaigned on the cameras and targets installation within 60–120 days of July 20 (roughly late September to late November 2026). The pre-deployment plan is unusually specific: policy written before any camera goes up, credentialed, tiered access limited to the division heads over investigations, narcotics, and patrol, with the chief deputy as system administrator; Wood says he will give himself no access, and that anyone misusing the system “would be terminated.” He cites the state’s 90-day retention ceiling and says “the SBI monitors the system.” A plan, not a vote — the same posture, adopting on the Sheriff’s existing appropriation, that Macon and Davidson show can still be reversed. (Hey Cherokee County, July 20) |
| Contested | Lenoir County (Kinston) | After public pressure, the Sheriff’s Office held a community forum in Kinston on July 29, 2026, where residents challenged the program’s privacy, its data security, and the lack of any public input before installation. Sheriff Jackie Rogers conceded on the record: “It was on me… I didn’t consult residents before the cameras were installed.” The hard numbers surfaced for the first time: the system cost $105,750 up front (paid from federal forfeiture funds) and $48,000 a year thereafter (about $3,000 per camera, county-funded), governed by the department’s “909 policy.” A Flock representative attended and fielded questions. The date residents should mark: the contract renews September 10, 2027. Update — Aug. 3, 2026: at the Board of Commissioners meeting (the item was not on the published agenda), Capt. Chrissy Smith briefed commissioners — about 35 of 75 officers trained, 30-day retention, and search records (user ID and reason) kept permanently for audit; she stated no misuse has been detected since operations began Sept. 11, 2025. A commissioner noted the board approved the program by resolution on Dec. 2, 2024 — which sits awkwardly against the Sheriff’s July 29 concession that residents were never consulted. Update — Sept 2026: WCTI News 12 Investigates reports the Sheriff’s Office operates 16 cameras and completed its first comprehensive annual audit this month. (WCTI News 12 · (WITN · Neuse News) |
| Enforcement | Charlotte / Mecklenburg Co. | North Carolina’s first criminal charge for Flock misuse landed here. On July 29, 2026 the SBI charged a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officer — Seth Daniel Elliott, 25 — with a misdemeanor, accessing a government computer for a non-law-enforcement purpose (N.C.G.S. § 14-454(b)), for running an unauthorized search through Flock and a state database. Per the affidavit, a “drug target” asked Elliott to run a plate on June 16, 2026 — and the plate belonged to a Watauga County Sheriff’s Office undercover vehicle — part of a WCSO drug operation; the SBI flagged the search to CMPD on June 18. A Charlotte officer had reached across the network into a mountain county’s operation — the failure mode no retention rule can reach. Elliott was released within hours on a $15,000 bond, placed on unpaid administrative leave with his database access revoked, and is due in court in late August; the charge is an accusation, not a conviction. CMPD owns few cameras of its own; its officers reach other agencies’ networks through data-sharing, and that department turns up as a heavy searcher in the audits we hold — 13,733 searches of UNC Charlotte’s cameras in three months alone. The case is the clearest proof yet that access controls fail after the fact, not before. Update — Aug. 4, 2026: under press pressure, CMPD released its Flock memorandum of understanding — signed Feb. 18 by Chief Estella Patterson — which limits searches to “bona fide investigations and evidence gathering” yet grants officers “limited access” to community-owned cameras (businesses, HOAs, schools). That MOU is the instrument that let an officer whose department owns no cameras reach into a shared network. (The charge, and what our records show · WBTV) Update — Sept. 30, 2026: a procurement front. CMPD is now seeking a new license-plate-reader vendor, with a bid deadline of October 5. CMPD holds no Flock contract — it operates under an MOU granting officers access to certain cameras — and residents pushed back at City Council, with about two dozen gathering Sept. 29 at Harding University High School. (WBTV) |
| Enforcement | Mooresville (Iredell Co.) | North Carolina’s second criminal Flock charge in a week — and the first for stalking rather than investigative leakage. On Aug. 5, 2026, Mooresville PD officer Elizabeth Anne Snowman, 36, was arrested on duty and charged with a misdemeanor — accessing a computer for a purpose other than official law-enforcement duties. She was dismissed from the department, posted a $5,000 secured bond, and is due back in court Aug. 27, 2026. Chief Ron Campurciani says she ran the Flock database 31 times (29 of them on duty) to track her boyfriend’s ex-wife. She was caught by a Flock system audit — after the searches, not before. The number that matters most for this page: at an Aug. 5 press conference the Chief said leadership is reviewing ten more potential misuse cases, at least three “problematic” — in a 124-officer department — and that another arrest could come “within days.” Update — Aug. 6: the internal audit now flags 11 officers, and Chief Campurciani says additional criminal charges are possible. In response the department tightened access: officers must now enter a case number and additional justification before any search. MPD also opened its Real-Time Crime Center to the press. (WHKY) (Our write-up & the redacted warrant · WBTV · WFAE) Update — Aug. 7, 2026: Chief Campurciani held a follow-up press availability sharpening his criticism of the former officer. Update — Aug. 10–11: MPD closed the ten-employee review with no additional criminal charges — only “several policy violations” moved to a sealed personnel review; Snowman remained employed pending an HR termination decision, and every search now requires an active case number and added justification. (WBTV, Aug. 7 · WBTV, Aug. 11) |
Tracking the misuse, case by case
Four North Carolina officers have now been criminally charged with abusing the Flock network — from Charlotte to the coast — the most recent a former Brunswick County sheriff’s lieutenant indicted on eighteen counts. We keep a running record — every NC case, its status, and the sources, updated as they surface. Open the North Carolina Police Misuse Tracker →
The whole state, at a glance
The Statewide Map
Fifty-one counties have a status here because someone requested the records. Forty-nine are grey because nobody has yet.
Open the full North Carolina camera map
The map page carries the legend, the county-by-county status table, the counties with the most cameras by count and per capita, and how to find the readers on your own street. Built from the same data as the tables below, so the two cannot disagree.
Already watching
Where the Cameras Are
Crowdsourced counts from the DeFlock map and agency transparency portals. Numbers shift — check the map for your block.
| Status | Locality | What’s happening |
|---|---|---|
| Active | Raleigh | Roughly 60 Flock cameras across the city, per DeFlock’s crowdsourced map. Update — Aug 2026: the access controls aren’t clean. WRAL Investigates obtained Raleigh PD’s April and May Flock audits; both flagged that among the department’s 400+ active users, “several” were no longer employed by RPD. The department could not say how many, and admitted it had deliberately left departed officers registered in case they returned — ending the practice and purging the accounts only after WRAL asked. Raleigh is one of only two NC jurisdictions with a protest-surveillance restriction on the books; the who-can-search side is the counterweight. (WRAL Investigates) |
| Active | Durham | About 46 Flock cameras in the city (none owned by Durham PD). Durham separately voted to drop ShotSpotter gunshot sensors. |
| Active | Charlotte (CMPD) | A plate-reader misidentification led to the wrongful detention of teacher Jasmine Horne; a review board ruled it 9–0 a wrongful detention. Residents have since launched a “Block the Flock CLT” petition demanding the city suspend Flock, disclose its data-sharing agreements, and hold a public forum. (Our writeup · petition) |
| Active | Fayetteville | Paid a $60,000 settlement after a license-plate reader helped wrongly arrest Jacqueline McNeill; the city also runs ShotSpotter. (Wrongful arrests) |
| Active | Wake suburbs | 20–30 cameras each in Knightdale and Wake Forest; Garner PD operates ~20; Fuquay-Varina ~16. Correction (July 28): Holly Springs Police run Vigilant/Motorola readers, not Flock, so we’ve removed it from the Flock column. Its chief also confirmed that outside agencies can install ALPRs inside town limits without the town’s approval or notice, and that federal data-sharing MOUs exist. Update — late July 2026: ALPR cameras at E. Carroll Joyner Park in Wake Forest were vandalized and removed by town staff for vendor repair (under investigation, no arrests). Flock has operated in Wake Forest since 2023 — and this is the incident NC departments now cite in their warnings. (CBS17) (Holly Springs Update) |
| Active | Pitt County | The school board voted in April to let the Sheriff install Flock cameras on roadways near two schools; the Sheriff’s Office now runs 30 cameras (28 fixed, 2 mobile) countywide and told WCTI in July 2026 it plans to add four more “based on operational needs.” (WCTI) (WITN) |
| Correction | Craven County / New Bern | Correction (Sept 13, 2026): an earlier version listed this as newly contested — a packed commissioners’ meeting and a sheriff’s Flock town hall — but that item was mistakenly sourced to the Berne Witness, a newspaper in Berne, Indiana (Adams County), and has been retracted. Verified in North Carolina: the City of New Bern owns no Flock cameras of its own, confirmed Sept 2, 2026. Craven County’s ABC Board does run ALPR — see the Active entry. (WITN) |
| Canceled | Greenville (Pitt Co.) | WON — Aug 28, 2026: the City of Greenville announced it will not move forward with the planned Flock purchase, the City Council and City Manager’s Office citing community feedback; the City confirmed GPD owns no Flock cameras (those visible around town are privately owned or run by other agencies). Organized public opposition stopped a deployment before it happened. The Pitt County Sheriff’s separate countywide network remains, so the county stays contested. How it got here: Greenville PD announced 10 new Flock cameras on major thoroughfares in July 2026 (~$30,000/yr) — separate from the Sheriff’s countywide network, and on top of the 1,000+ cameras Chief Richard Tyndall says the city already accesses. Residents are split: of ~15 people WITN asked downtown, 9 opposed (“privacy is becoming a privilege instead of a right”). The department’s own release confirms the cameras log roof racks, decals, and bumper stickers. Update — Aug 24, 2026: it’s now organized opposition. More than 40 residents filled a City Council meeting whose agenda held only public comment and closed session; the council voted to extend the comment period so everyone signed up could speak. Former councilwoman Marion Blackburn tied the camera plan to pending police-misconduct allegations. No vote was taken. (WITN, July · WITN, Aug 25 · Greenville PD FAQ) |
| Active | Rutherfordton (Rutherford Co.) | Rutherfordton PD runs Flock cameras. After one was vandalized, the police chief’s July 7 Facebook post defending the program drew 20,000+ comments — many hostile to the cameras (replacement cost ~$3,500; police say charges are possible). No vote or organized campaign yet, but a raw read on how hostile NC public sentiment has become. (WLOS · Fox Carolina) |
| Active | Burke County | The Burke County Sheriff’s Office runs 10 Flock ALPR cameras, in service since about April 2025 under Sheriff Banks Hinceman. He says the office deletes data at 30 days — tighter than the 90-day statutory cap — asserts the data “belongs solely to Burke,” and says he does not believe ICE has access. Those are claims the audit logs we already hold from other counties could test directly. Stated results: 29 cases closed, 13 arrests, 15 stolen vehicles recovered, and $743,000 in recovered property. At least one camera was knocked down in mid-July. No public vote, contract figure, or organized opposition reported. (The Paper) |
| Active | Haywood County | The counterweight to next-door Macon. On July 21, 2026, Board Chairman Kevin Ensley said the county will keep its ~8 Flock cameras — in use since 2024 — crediting them with a drop in overdose deaths and noting the county has received no complaints. No vote; a direct, on-the-record decision not to follow Macon’s 5–0 removal. We log it because a record that only counts cancellations is not a record. (WLOS) |
| Contested | Gaston County (Mount Holly) | Now contested. Residents filed a removal petition Aug 25, 2026 to Mayor David Moore and the council; Town Manager Jonathan Blanton says the town has no plans to discontinue its 24 Flock cameras (6,822 alerts since installation). The Gaston County Police run 10 more. Mount Holly had been the counterweight — digging in as neighboring Davidson County removed its own — and now has organized opposition. Update — Sept 6, 2026: City Manager Blanton defended the program to Spectrum News, citing a recent 24-camera arrest that produced 6 charges, seized fentanyl, and recovered a firearm; every search, he said, requires a report number and a purpose code. (removal petition · WCNC) |
| Canceled | Transylvania County / Brevard (WNC) | Stopped before it started. On Sept. 8, 2026, Brevard Police Chief Christy Wentzell withdrew her request for three fixed Axon ‘Outpost’ ALPRs after a community-feedback session drew privacy objections — the same Axon deployment named in our Chapter 74D licensing complaint. A removal petition for the county’s own readers (asking Sheriff Chuck Owenby to take them down, citing no public vote and no transparency portal) remains active. (removal petition) |
| Contested | Union County — Monroe & countywide (Charlotte metro) | A new Union County front, on two tracks. In the City of Monroe, a removal petition — ‘Stop Flock in Monroe, NC!’ (started July 29, 2026) — has passed 532 signatures, and a sitting elected official has answered it on the record: Mayor Pro Tem Surluta Anthony wrote that she has reviewed the concerns and plans to raise the issue at the next City Council meeting — an on-the-record commitment to put Flock on a Monroe agenda. Update — Sept. 8, 2026: Flock reached a Monroe City Council agenda for the first time — a staff FAQ and ‘transparency’ discussion only, no vote and no moratorium — while Neighbors United/Vecinos Unidos (NUVU) filled the City Hall lot demanding the city terminate its contract. (WSOC · WCCB) Monroe PD runs a Flock transparency portal covering roughly a dozen readers (the portal currently lists 12; the Atlas of Surveillance recorded 15 in 2025 — we are reconciling the count). Separately, a countywide petition — ‘Ban Flock cameras in Union County, NC’ (started Aug 21, 2026) — is at 340 signatures and asks Weddington, Union County, Matthews, Wesley Chapel, and Waxhaw to bar Flock outright. And the county shows the private-camera pattern we track elsewhere: WCNC reports the Union County Sheriff’s Office owns no Flock cameras, yet roughly seven neighborhood HOAs let deputies use their private readers, routing hits to a designated investigator — private cameras doing public enforcement, with no appropriation to defund and no board vote to reverse. (Monroe petition · Union County petition) |
| Active | Lincoln County | The Sheriff’s Office installed 30 Flock cameras countywide — rolled out March–June 2025 under Sheriff Bill Beam, funded from drug-asset-seizure funds rather than appropriations, which bypasses the annual funding lever Macon used to end its program. Stated 30-day retention, access limited to ranking officers on felony and missing-person cases. An existing deployment, not a new one. (WCNC · QC News) |
| Contested | Brunswick County | Sheriff’s Office confirmed a Flock Safety contract (WECT); the DeFlock map shows readers countywide, and the Office produced most of our ALPR records request (8 Flock cameras, 30-day retention). (the records) Update — Sep 1, 2026: a Flock-misuse case, caught by an audit. Sheriff Brian Chism announced that a routine audit of Flock system activity flagged alleged misuse by one employee; after an Internal Affairs investigation the employee resigned, and the Office referred the matter to the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation for independent review. Chism said the Office will review its policies, access controls, and auditing. Details are limited by personnel law and the active SBI review. This is the second NC Flock-misuse enforcement matter we track after the Charlotte-Mecklenburg charge — and it bears directly on the Organization & Network Audits and misuse/discipline records still outstanding on our June 29 request. The audit that caught it is the very record class agencies fight hardest to keep from the public. Update: the Office launched a Flock transparency portal the same day — policy, costs, and a Public Search Audit — a real step, though (as with New Hanover’s) the portal shows search reasons and camera counts, not who searched. Its own data logs 560 searches in August, each reaching a median of ~6,347 cameras from this 8-camera county; ten are coded ‘Traffic Infraction,’ a purpose NC law forbids. (Portal · Port City Daily · WECT · WWAY) Update — Sept 8, 2026: now contested at the board. At the Board of Commissioners meeting, Commissioner Pat Sykes — who put the item on the agenda — pressed Sheriff Chism, read the Fourth Amendment from the dais, and demanded “a record of every use.” Chism disclosed the county operates 16 Flock cameras (contract begun Jan. 2024, renewed Jan. 2026) — double the 8 in the Office’s earlier records production — and said he’ll “do whatever I can to keep these cameras.” No vote was taken; Chair Mike Forte ended the discussion and said the board will revisit once Sykes receives the records she requested (her August email went unanswered). (WECT · WWAY) Update — Sept 21, 2026: the Board hit pause, 5–0. The Commissioners voted unanimously to pause new ALPR purchases for 30 days and directed staff, legal, and communications to work with the Sheriff’s Office and report back — but set no date for an actual vote. Notably, the Board chose staff over a committee on purpose (“that way you wouldn’t have a committee”), which places the review outside the open-meetings law — no open session, minutes, or public comment that a commissioner committee would require (G.S. 143-318.10). We’re pressing for the review’s full record under § 132 and a public hearing before any vote. The meeting also revealed an in-car reader in every deputy’s vehicle and a second system, Airship AI pole cameras, bought with no public vote. We filed a consolidated records request to both the County and the Sheriff the next day. (WECT · our full breakdown) Update — Sept 24, 2026: a camera-count discrepancy, and the bigger Axon footprint. Reporting on the county’s ALPR review — led by Commissioners Randy Thompson and Frank Williams — surfaced a contract-vs-deployment gap: the county is contracted for 8 Flock cameras but has 15 physically deployed. The Sheriff’s Office blames a Flock “oversight” that moved units from private property onto state land, and a removal work order is pending. The same reporting confirms the county’s separate $4 million, five-year Axon contract covering 89 advanced and 5 basic ALPR units — a far larger mobile plate-reader footprint than the Flock program the pause addresses. (Port City Daily) Update — Oct 16–19, 2026: a policy rewrite, then a split board. On Oct. 16 the Sheriff’s Office revised its ALPR policy — ten days after former Lt. Daniel Little’s Oct. 5 indictment (18 counts) — adding enumerated prohibited uses, search-justification logging, and a 30-day audit. At an unscheduled Oct. 19 discussion, officials told commissioners they cut system access from 79 users to 49 (all top officers) and disabled saved searches in patrol vehicles; the board then unanimously approved payment for already-ordered equipment, including 12 dash cameras — not a new purchase, so the Sept. 21 pause stands. Commissioner Pat Sykes may move to cancel the contract, and Sheriff Chism is set to brief the board in November. Roughly 10 private (HOA) cameras are also accessible to the Sheriff. (WECT · Port City Daily) |
| Contested | Pender County | Sheriff’s Office confirmed a Flock contract, with cameras on private property for investigative use; we’ve filed an ALPR records request (#26-306). Update — Aug. 6, 2026: answering “rising community questions,” Sheriff Alan Cutler issued a public statement with hard numbers — 8 fixed Flock ALPRs plus 1 mobile, leased, at major ingress/egress points. He states the cameras sit on public and private property under Property License Agreements that Flock holds (not the Sheriff’s Office), and that PCSO is developing a public transparency portal. Not a vote — a defensive posture — but it confirms the camera count our request was chasing. (WECT, Aug. 6 · the records) |
| Active | Wadesboro (Anson Co.) | A small department running an outsized network. Police Chief Michael Childers says Wadesboro PD operates 21 Flock readers, with 30-day retention and a case-number requirement to search, and credits the system with four homicides solved in a year. On Aug. 3, 2026 he issued a public warning that damaging Flock cameras is a criminal offense — prompted, he said, by discovering a “DeFlock Wadesboro” Facebook page; the department reports no threats. The warning, not a crime wave, is what put Anson County on this map. (QC News · FOX8) |
| Active | Columbus County | Sheriff’s Office confirmed a Flock contract alongside its southeastern neighbors — readers now span all five Cape Fear–region counties. Hard numbers now exist: the SBI’s April 2026 report to the legislature puts the Sheriff’s Office at 6 cameras on state-maintained roads that captured 6.8 million plates in roughly seven months. Update — Aug 26, 2026: speaking to WECT, Sheriff Bill Rogers said the office runs 5 Flock cameras (one recently stolen from Tabor City) and keeps its data 90 days — the statutory maximum, notably not cut to 30 or 7 days like its neighbors. He framed the cameras as helping locate missing people with dementia. Update — Sept 4, 2026: after a third notice and a mediation offer, County Attorney Amanda Prince produced in part — the Flock contract (6 cameras, 2023, 30-day retention), ALPR Policy 609, an NCDOT–SBI MOU, a six-site camera-location list, and an invoice ($3,750/term). Still outstanding: the Network Audit naming outside searchers (only an Organization Audit screenshot came) and native-CSV format; Prince says more scans and an explanation follow next week. (WECT, Aug 26 · WECT) |
| Active | Whiteville (Columbus Co.) | The City of Whiteville runs its own Flock cameras — a municipal contract separate from the Columbus County Sheriff’s Office, which also uses Flock. The SBI’s April 2026 report confirms Whiteville PD runs LPRs, and Chief Paul Rockenbach said an LPR alert on March 5, 2026 flagged a vehicle tied to a Cumberland County warrant and led to an arrest in a homicide case — the county’s demonstration that these systems do sometimes work as advertised. Update — Aug 10, 2026: Whiteville produced. In response to our July 1 request, the Department released its Flock contract, ALPR policy, invoices, and MOUs, plus four months (Apr–Jul 2026) of Flock Event Logs, Organization Audits, and — notably — Network Audits naming the outside agencies that searched its cameras, the field New Hanover redacts. Most is mirrored at the Internet Archive; the Network-Audit CSVs came by secure link we’re still accessing. Credit where due. Update — Aug 26, 2026: speaking to WECT, Chief Paul Rockenbach said Whiteville runs 9 Flock cameras (one mobile) at the city’s entrances, stores data 30 days with a plan to cut to 7, and called the system investigations-only — adding, “we need to… be open and honest about the technology we are employing.” On the records, he was. (WECT, Aug 26 · WECT) |
| Active | Ocean Isle Beach & Wallace | Two municipal departments we had not named are in the SBI pilot on state rights-of-way: Ocean Isle Beach Police (Brunswick Co.) and Wallace Police (Duplin Co.), both named in WECT’s account of the SBI’s April 2026 report on the 32-agency program. Small departments, state-maintained roads, one statewide network — the exact configuration the budget provision has now opened to every agency in North Carolina. (WECT, July 21, 2026) |
| Active | Plymouth (Washington Co.) | One of NC’s densest deployments — 28 Flock cameras in a town of ~3,000. The Town Council voted Monday, July 13 on adding 8 more (to 36) — a drawdown of a $325,000 federal Community Project Funding grant awarded in 2024, under Chief Louis Banks. Because it spends money the town already has, it is the kind of vote that ordinarily passes without friction. Update — August 5. We said the July packet should surface in early August. It has not, and the record is thinner than when we first checked. The most recent meeting posted is still June 22, 2026 — no July agenda, no packet, no minutes, twenty-three days after the vote. And the Upcoming Meetings page is entirely blank. The council meets the second Monday at 7:00 p.m., putting the next meeting on Monday, August 10 — with no notice posted six days out. The likely explanation is on the town’s own site, and it is not a conspiracy: Plymouth’s Town Council page currently advertises an Interim Town Manager vacancy — the town is recruiting to fill even the interim role. A town without a manager is a town whose clerk absorbs the manager’s work, and posting lags. That is an explanation. It is not a cure. A town of ~3,000 voted on doubling to 36 federally funded surveillance cameras, and three weeks later a resident cannot learn what their council decided, when the next meeting is, or who is running the town. How to be heard anyway: written comment to publiccomment@visitplymouthnc.com by 3:00 p.m. the day of the meeting is read into the record; to speak live, register with the Town Clerk by 3:00 p.m. that day. We will publish the July packet the moment it posts. (WITN · Recent Meetings · Upcoming Meetings · Town Council) |
| Active | Onslow County (non-Flock ALPR) | Sheriff’s Office runs 12 Plate Ranger cameras countywide — a Flock competitor, begun March 2026. Proof the surveillance is bigger than one brand: the same oversight questions apply to every ALPR vendor. The City of Jacksonville, separately, posted on Aug. 19, 2026 that it does not own or operate any Flock cameras — a municipal no-program disclaimer sitting alongside the county Sheriff’s Plate Ranger system. (WITN, Aug. 19 · WITN) |
| Active | Carteret County | A three-vendor county — Flock, Verkada, and Ubiquiti — documented in a July 9, 2026 Carteret County News-Times investigation. Atlantic Beach PD runs Verkada ALPRs in the SBI pilot (30-day retention, 170 database ‘hits,’ no expansion planned). The paper independently confirmed at least eight more readers countywide: one Flock camera on Glenn Abby Drive (the Bay Colony HOA won’t confirm ownership), two Ubiquiti at Bogue Inlet Pier in Emerald Isle, and five at Lowe’s stores (two in Morehead City, three in Cape Carteret). The store-lot pipeline, documented: Cape Carteret’s police chief says his department has no access to the Lowe’s Flock cameras — yet Lowe’s shares that data with the SBI, so it runs past the local department straight to the state. Morehead City’s chief would neither confirm nor deny his own ALPR use. And Emerald Isle approved a June parking ordinance noting a private pier owner’s LPRs could support a future civil citation — private cameras feeding municipal enforcement. The paper’s editorial board called for public oversight. (Carteret County News-Times) Update — Sept 15, 2026: the records, and the refusal. Responding to a DeFlockILM / Rice Law public-records request, the Town of Atlantic Beach produced the Verkada contract, the ALPR policy, an SBI/NCIC hot-list MOU, and the Verkada Command audit log — which logs 1,222 vehicle searches in three months (June–Sept 2026) on the town’s two cameras, plus ‘People List’ and ‘License Plates of Interest’ watchlist activity. The program cost $11,126, partly donation-funded. The Town withheld the plate-read event log and rejected the preservation demand, arguing the data “is maintained by Verkada, not the Town.” We answered with a deficiency response and renewed preservation demand (Rice Law o/b/o DeFlockILM): the raw plate reads may be confidential, but the audit, access, sharing-configuration, and People-of-Interest records are public, and vendor storage is no bar to production or preservation under Gray Media Grp. v. City of Charlotte, 892 S.E.2d 629 (2023). The Town’s production and our response are mirrored at the Internet Archive. Update — Sept 21, 2026: Town Clerk Katrina Tyer and Town Attorney Jane Gordon re-sent the Town’s written response, restating the refusal to produce the plate-read event log under §§ 132-1.4, 132-1.4A, and 20-183.32 and declining the preservation demand on the ground that the data is held by Verkada, not the Town. Update — Sept 23, 2026: renewed preservation demand (Rice Law o/b/o DeFlockILM). We answered on Rice Law letterhead, narrowing to preservation of the records already requested Aug 30. It separates the § 20-183.32 90-day ceiling (which reaches only captured plate data) from the audit, access, configuration, watchlist, and vendor-communication records it does not reach; invokes Gray Media Grp. v. City of Charlotte, 892 S.E.2d 629 (2023) — custody includes constructive possession where the Town has an immediate right to its own account data, and whether the Town has custody is the court’s call, not the Town’s; and puts the Town on notice that destroying or auto-deleting responsive records after this notice would be unlawful under § 132-3 and would defeat any “substantial justification” defense, supporting an award of costs and fees under § 132-9(c). The demand and the Town’s response are mirrored with the rest of the file. |
| Active | Craven County | Sheriff’s Office has run Flock cameras at its ABC stores in Havelock, Bridgeton and Vanceboro since 2022 — and on July 5, 2026 two people were filmed cutting the pole and stealing a reader in Havelock (1200 block of East Main Street, 11:23 p.m.). The Sheriff’s Office released the surveillance video and is seeking to identify them. We don’t condone destroying the equipment — but the resentment it signals is real, and local. Correction: we previously described this as a separate incident in New Bern, after aggregators reported it that way. WITN’s reporting places it in Havelock, and it is the same incident. Confirmed since: WITN reported on July 10 that New Bern, Jacksonville and Kinston police all say they do not use Flock at all — which settles it. Update — Sept. 2, 2026: the City of New Bern issued its own statement that it “does not own, operate, manage, contract with, or have access to Flock cameras” within the city — any local Flock units are privately owned or state-run, and its park cameras are non-ALPR. (WITN, Sept. 2 · WITN) (WITN) |
| Active | Harnett, Franklin, Person & Vance counties | Not our records — the SBI’s own April 2026 report to the legislature. The Harnett, Franklin and Person sheriffs and Henderson police (Vance Co.) run a combined 40 plate readers on state-maintained roads and had logged 23.3 million drivers by March. Raleigh PD’s three cameras alone recorded 14.8 million drivers and returned 956 ‘hits’ — the report never says whether a single one produced an arrest. These four counties were blank on our map until July 20; they are on it now because the state published the numbers itself. (WRAL · the SBI report) |
On campus
The UNC System Question
This reaches the state’s universities, too — and it is no longer a question. On June 28, 2026 we filed the same ALPR records request with all sixteen UNC System universities. Four have produced. Every one of the four runs plate readers, and no two run the same vendor:
- NC A&T State University — 16 Flock cameras at $51,240 a year. Its Flock network audit for March–May 2026 logs 1,390,776 searches by 3,487 organizations, overwhelmingly out of state, including 974 labeled with immigration reasons. A&T’s own officers ran 261 searches, 77.8% of them traffic infractions. (the audit · the full dataset)
- UNC School of the Arts — not Flock. BriefCam Insights plate recognition on six camera locations, all campus entrances, ~$27,181. It reports no data-sharing agreements and no misuse records. Its ALPR policy took effect June 29, 2026 — the day after our request — and still names “the Huntersville Police Department” in copied-over boilerplate.
- Western Carolina University — three ALPR systems at once: Flock and Rekor for campus police, plus a Genetec parking reader. After a July escalation the University produced supplementally on Aug 4: the Flock system retains data 30 days and shares with no one, and the police LPR policy (G.O. 302) is now in hand. But the parking system’s own configuration sets 365-day retention on “Hits,” over the § 20-183.32(a) 90-day cap — one of several items we’re still pursuing.
- UNC Greensboro — answered that it has no Flock agreements and closed the request. Its own production shows it has run Rekor Scout since December 2020 and renewed 16 licenses for FY27. The request was vendor-neutral; the policy, camera locations, retention schedule and sharing agreements were never produced. § 20-183.31(a) requires a written ALPR policy before a system operates.
Read every response, document by document, in the records repository.
Four campuses, four different vendors, and one shared gap: no campus has yet produced a compliant ALPR policy. That is the finding, and it is ours — not reported, obtained. Earlier reporting had established that UNC–Chapel Hill contracted in February 2026 for roughly 23 readers, through a licensed third party after Flock was blocked in the 2023 licensing fight, amid concerns about campus data reaching ICE. (Daily Tar Heel.) The twelve remaining institutions — including UNC Wilmington, right here, where an ALPR-style camera has been reported at a campus entrance — are pending, deficient, or quoting fees. The campuses that stonewall get named.
Know what’s on your campus? Tell us, and we’ll add it.
The bigger threat
The Statewide Surveillance Bill
Local contracts are one front. The other is in Raleigh. Earlier in 2026, House Bill 206 would have made the State Bureau of Investigation’s highway license-plate-reader program permanent. That provision was stripped out of HB 206 on June 17 — and put into the state budget instead, where it passed (see status below). During the pilot, the system had grown to about 140 cameras across 32 agencies and logged more than 150 million plate scans. And the ask is far larger than the pilot. WCTI reported on July 20, 2026 that the SBI’s own report to the General Assembly records 32 agencies requesting roughly 230 ALPR sites on state rights-of-way, and that SBI Director Chip Hawley has recommended lawmakers fund the highway program through 2028. Of those 32 agencies, the same SBI report shows only 17 have actually installed the roughly 140 cameras, with another 75 approved or pending installation — the near-term pipeline between today’s count and the 230-site ask. (WCTI News 12) (WRAL.) And there is now a date on the calendar: an SBI spokesperson told WECT the bureau is scheduled to present a program update to the General Assembly on October 1, 2026 — the first live legislative checkpoint since the plate-reader provision became law, and unlike the March annual report, an appearance lawmakers can question. By statute, the SBI’s report (due Oct. 1 to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committees on Justice & Public Safety and on Transportation) must include each participating agency’s written ALPR policy, the plate-capture count per system, and every occasion data was preserved beyond 90 days — the only compelled statewide disclosure of over-retention, and a document worth waiting on by name. The same reporting confirms the program’s ambition in the SBI’s own words: its stated goal is to place cameras at every entrance and exit to the state. (WECT, July 21.) We broke down the fight, and how it ended, in “They Want a Camera at Every Entrance to North Carolina.”
Status — corrected July 17, 2026. It passed. We got this wrong. On June 17, 2026 a Senate committee substitute stripped the plate-reader provision out of HB 206, and HB 206 became law on July 7 without it. We called that a win. It was not. Senate Judiciary chair Danny Britt told the News & Observer the provisions came out of the bill “since they were going to be put into the budget” — and the budget, now law, authorizes NCDOT to agree with the SBI to place plate readers on state-owned land. The systems must be above ground, removable, and free of combustible fuel. The SBI must report annually each March to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee. The provision did not die; it changed vehicles. (N&O via GovTech · our correction, in full)
And thirty of the thirty-two pilot agencies had no rule against watching a protest. WRAL obtained the internal ALPR policies of every agency in the SBI pilot. Only Asheville Police and Raleigh Police restrict using plate readers to surveil political rallies, religious gatherings, or protests. The other thirty have no such language at all — and the statute’s only penalty for misuse is a Class 1 misdemeanor, with no required audit to catch it. The budget provision does not cap the program at those 32; it opens the network to any law enforcement agency in the state, each bringing whatever policy it has written, or hasn’t. (WRAL, July 17, 2026 · our full breakdown)
A related pressure point, stated carefully: North Carolina is the only state of 40-plus that requires Flock to hold a security-systems license — and Flock operated here for years without one. The state’s Security Systems Licensing Board opened an investigation in 2022; Flock argued its cameras aren’t “alarm systems.” In October 2023 a Wake County judge ordered Flock to stop installing cameras in North Carolina unless it used a licensed third party, and the company did not obtain its own license until July 2024. That license — No. 367626-CSA, Class Alarm, held by Ralph Taylor for Flock Safety — issued July 23, 2024 and runs through August 31, 2026. We are not predicting a shutoff, and there is now nothing to predict: the Board told us on July 17, 2026 that Taylor filed his renewal on July 15, that staff asked for a corrected certificate of insurance and continuing-education certificates, and that he has 60 days to cure — with the license valid throughout. Update — the renewal was granted: the state license lookup now shows No. 367626-CSA valid through August 31, 2028. (We previously said this license expired July 31. That was wrong. The Board’s own record says August 31, and we have corrected it.) The live lever isn’t the date; it’s that the Board has a complaints process, field investigators, and a documented history of investigating this company. (N&O / Herald-Sun)
And the pilot’s reach already extends beyond public roads. WRAL has reported that the SBI gained access to Flock cameras at Lowe’s Home Improvement stores across North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia — a pipeline running from a private retailer’s parking lots into a state database, funded in part by a federal human-trafficking grant. (WRAL Investigates.) More on the store-lot pipeline.
North Carolina law already limits this data: under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-183.32, captured plate data is confidential, is not a public record, may be disclosed only to law enforcement for a legitimate purpose on a written request, and shall not be sold for any purpose. Whether Flock’s contracts and data-sharing honor that limit is one of the open legal questions worth pressing.
In fairness, and with a date: on August 25, 2025, Flock CEO Garrett Langley published a statement saying all federal pilots had been paused and that “moving forward, federal users will not be added to Statewide or Nationwide lookup” (Flock Safety). Flock also began tagging federal agencies in its audit logs, which is how they can now be identified at all. But the commitment covers the lookup pools, not direct shares. Kure Beach’s own records, produced in July 2026, list the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service as direct sharing relationships — one-way, the Town giving and receiving nothing — and the two ran 31,476 searches of that town’s cameras between March and May 2026.
Check your own town
Tools Every North Carolinian Can Use
DeFlock Map
See the crowdsourced map of Flock & ALPR cameras near you
Read the story →
Have I Been Flocked
Look up released Flock search-audit data. Note for NC drivers: the tool is built from public-records requests, and North Carolina plate data is confidential by statute — so a NC plate typically appears only when an out-of-state agency searched it and that state released the log. A blank result doesn’t mean your car wasn’t searched.
Read the story →
ALPR Analysis
Flock camera coverage and counts, county by county
Read the story →
ACLU
“Get the Flock Out” — a national toolkit for pressing your city or county
Read the story →
DeFlockILM
The statewide map — where North Carolina’s 2,819 mapped ALPR cameras are, county by county
Read the story →
DeFlockILM
Map the cameras watching New Hanover County
Read the story →
DeFlockILM
Our public records: the contract, the 3M-search audit, the STING Center directive
Read the story →
DeFlockILM
Talking points to bring to your own town council
Read the story →
DeFlockILM
The NC records repository & transparency scorecard — file a request, see who stonewalls
Read the story →
Fighting Flock in another NC town? Tell us.
We’re building this into the state’s clearinghouse. If your community has canceled, is deciding, or needs the records and language that worked here, reach out — and we’ll add you to the map.
Your move
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.