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Cape Fear region, NC ☰

Do it yourself

Request the Records Yourself

The audit that exposed nearly three million searches of New Hanover County’s Flock network began as a public-records request. You can file one too. North Carolina law gives every resident that right — and this guide walks you through it, start to finish.

Every request adds a data point.
The more residents who ask, the harder it is for any agency to keep its surveillance quiet. File one, then send us what you get — we’ll publish it.

Send us your response →

Why it works

Public records are the public’s leverage

Agencies install these cameras quietly. A public-records request forces the paper into daylight — the contract, the policy, the audit logs showing who searched the system. You don’t need a lawyer, a reason, or a filing fee. You have to ask, in writing, and know what to ask for.

Step by step

How to file in North Carolina

1
Find the right custodian. For a county’s Flock system, that’s usually the Sheriff’s Office, which holds the contract. A town’s cameras belong to its Police Department or Town/City Clerk. When in doubt, address it to the “public-records custodian.”
2
Put it in writing. Email is fine and gives you a timestamp. You do not have to use any special form — though if the agency runs an online records portal, using it can speed things up.
3
Cite the law. Reference N.C. Gen. Stat. § 132-1 et seq. You are not required to explain why you want the records.
4
Be specific — name the records. Vague requests get vague answers. Name the actual records: for Flock, the Organization Audit, Network Audit, and Event Log, the contract, and the ALPR policy; for a Fusus camera network or a drone program, the specific items in the matching template. The three copy-paste templates below do this for you.
5
Ask for electronic copies. Request native PDF, CSV, or Excel — it’s faster, usually free, and far easier to analyze than paper.
6
Keep your sent copy and follow up. North Carolina sets no hard deadline, so a polite nudge after a week or two helps. Save every reply.
7
Send us what you get. Produced or refused, we’ll publish it and add the agency to our public list.

Copy, paste, send

Three request templates — pick your program

North Carolina agencies run three overlapping surveillance programs, each generating its own records. Pick the one you’re investigating, replace the bracketed parts, and send it to the agency’s records custodian. Every template has a preservation demand built in from the first email, so short-retention data can’t quietly auto-delete while an agency sits on your request.

Jump to a template: Flock / ALPR Axon Fusus cameras Police drones

1. Flock / ALPR — automated license plate readers

The plate-reader network: the contract, the policy, and the audit logs showing who searched the cameras.

To the Public-Records Custodian, [AGENCY NAME]:

Under the North Carolina Public Records Law, N.C. Gen. Stat. § 132-1 et seq., I request copies of the following records concerning the agency’s automated license plate reader (ALPR) program, including any Flock Safety system. Electronic copies (native PDF, CSV, or Excel) are acceptable and preferred.

PRESERVATION DEMAND (effective immediately). Because ALPR and Flock records — including plate reads, audit and event logs, and hot-list data — are subject to short retention windows and automatic deletion, please treat this as a formal preservation request as of the date of this email. Pending your full response, preserve, and suspend the automatic purge or overwriting of, all records responsive to this request — including all Flock data, Organization/Network/Event audit logs, and related communications — notwithstanding any routine retention schedule or auto-deletion setting. Under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 132-3, public records may not be destroyed without the consent of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, and N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-183.32 permits an agency to preserve ALPR data beyond its default retention period. This preservation obligation applies whether or not the records are ultimately produced, and remains in effect until this request is fully resolved — including through any appeal or litigation. A failure to respond does not lift it.

1. Every vendor contract, order form, quote, and renewal for ALPR cameras or services — including any agreement with Flock Safety, Inc. — and all amendments.
2. The ALPR policy, SOP, or general order governing camera use, access, and auditing.
3. All data-sharing agreements and MOUs, including with other law-enforcement agencies, the State Bureau of Investigation, ICE, CBP, and any nationwide lookup or “hot list” network.
4. The Flock Organization Audit, Network Audit, and Event Log for the most recent three complete months, in native CSV as exported by Flock. Please do not re-save the file through Microsoft Excel, which silently drops any rows past ~1,048,576; if any monthly file would exceed that limit, please produce it in smaller date ranges (for example, one week at a time) so nothing is truncated.
5. The current number of ALPR cameras operated and the general areas they cover.
6. The data-retention schedule and any preservation or deletion settings.
7. All invoices, purchase orders, and payment records for ALPR cameras or services.
8. Any records of misuse, audit exceptions, or discipline relating to ALPR searches.
9. Communications with the vendor regarding data sharing, network configuration, or federal access.

If the agency does not operate any ALPR or Flock system, please confirm that in writing.

I ask to inspect these records at no cost and to receive electronic copies. If any portion is withheld, please cite the specific statutory basis and produce the remainder. Please acknowledge receipt.

Respectfully,
[Your Name]
[Optional: city / contact email]

2. Axon Fusus — private-camera real-time crime center

Many agencies run an Axon Fusus “real-time crime center” and invite residents and businesses to register or plug in their own cameras — often through a “Connect” program with a device shop. This asks who’s enrolled, who installs and services the gear (the Chapter 74D licensing question), what other systems it plugs into, and where the data flows.

To the Public-Records Custodian, [AGENCY NAME]:

Under the North Carolina Public Records Law, N.C. Gen. Stat. § 132-1 et seq., I request copies of the following records concerning the agency’s Axon Fusus real-time crime center and any associated private-camera registration or integration program (a “Connect” program, if the agency runs one). Electronic copies (native PDF, CSV, or Excel) are acceptable and preferred.

PRESERVATION DEMAND (effective immediately). Please preserve, and suspend any deletion or overwriting of, all responsive records — including enrollment/registry exports, device and installer records, access and audit logs, integration and data-sharing configurations, and communications — notwithstanding any retention schedule, under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 132-3. This applies to records Axon or Fusus hold on the agency’s behalf.

PARTICIPANTS
1. A list of the businesses/organizations that have REGISTERED cameras (Camera Registry) and, separately, those that have INTEGRATED live feeds (Camera Integration), plus the field that distinguishes the two. If you contend a street-address or camera-location field is exempt, please redact only that field and produce the rest (name, ZIP or municipality, enrollment date).
2. The total number of registered vs. integrated participants, by month.

DEVICES & FEES
3. The device models/tiers, capabilities, and pricing offered (the Shop catalog and any “Device Compatibility” list), and records of each fususCORE device sold, provided, or furnished at no charge and the location it serves.
4. All payments, invoices, and subscription/enrollment transactions for any device or subscription fee, and records of who bears the cost (participant, agency, grant, or Axon/Fusus).

CONTRACT & DATA RIGHTS
5. The Axon/Fusus contract, order forms, statements of work or Task Orders, renewals, and any line items for installation, service, support, maintenance, or training; and the provisions defining the agency’s right to obtain the program’s data.
6. Invoices, purchase orders, grants, or donations funding the program.

WHO INSTALLS, SERVICES, AND MONITORS (the Chapter 74D question)
7. Records identifying every person or entity that solicits participants, installs or configures the fususCORE, services or maintains the devices or platform, or monitors the feeds — on the participant side and the agency side — and any North Carolina Security Systems Licensing Board (Chapter 74D) license or employee-registration numbers.
8. Any recommended- or preferred-installer list or referral, and any correspondence or intake forms in which a participant identifies who installed or serviced their cameras.
9. Work orders, service tickets, maintenance/monitoring agreements, and communications with Axon/Fusus about installation, service, monitoring, or North Carolina licensing.

INTEGRATION & DATA SHARING
10. Every other system integrated with the fususONE platform — ALPR/Flock, gunshot detection, drones, CAD/RMS, body-worn cameras, facial recognition, license-plate hot lists, or third-party data — and the agreements or API configurations that enable them.
11. Any agreement or configuration that shares the program’s data or feeds with another agency — including the State Bureau of Investigation, the N.C. Information Sharing and Analysis Center (NCISAAC), the Department of Homeland Security, ICE, CBP, or the FBI — and the mechanism of that sharing (a feed, an API, a Fusus network-share setting, a manual export, or embedded personnel).

GOVERNANCE
12. The program’s policies, access-control rules, audit-log practices, data-retention schedule, and training materials.

This request does not seek passwords, credentials, IP addresses, network configurations, or camera fields of view (N.C. Gen. Stat. § 132-6.1(c)). If any portion is withheld, please cite the specific statute and produce the remainder — § 132-6(c) requires you to redact the confidential and produce the rest. I am not required to state a purpose (§ 132-6(b)). Please acknowledge receipt.

Respectfully,
[Your Name]
[Optional: city / contact email]

3. Police drones — UAS / Drone as First Responder

Departments are standing up drone programs that launch toward incidents — increasingly in response to an automated alert. This asks for the FAA authorizations, the flight logs, the policy, and whether a plate-reader hit can put an aircraft over you.

To the Public-Records Custodian, [AGENCY NAME]:

Under the North Carolina Public Records Law, N.C. Gen. Stat. § 132-1 et seq., I request copies of the following records concerning the agency’s unmanned aircraft system (UAS/drone) program, including any Drone as First Responder (DFR) program. Electronic copies (native PDF, CSV, or Excel) are acceptable and preferred.

PRESERVATION DEMAND (effective immediately). Because flight logs, telemetry, and imagery are subject to short retention and automatic deletion, please preserve, and suspend any deletion or overwriting of, all responsive records — including flight logs, flight-time records, telemetry, imagery, and associated CAD data — under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 132-3, pending your full response.

1. Every vendor contract, order form, quote, cooperative-purchasing agreement, and renewal for UAS hardware or software, docking stations, or DFR services — including any agreement with Axon, Skydio, BRINC, Flock/Aerodome, DJI, Paladin, or Motorola — and all amendments.
2. The UAS policy, SOP, or directive governing drone use, authorization, supervision, and auditing, including any DFR deployment protocol and any protocol for launching a drone in response to an automated alert (an ALPR hit, a camera, or gunshot detection).
3. All Federal Aviation Administration authorizations and the applications that produced them — Certificates of Waiver or Authorization (COA), Part 107 waivers, and beyond-visual-line-of-sight approvals — and correspondence with the FAA.
4. Flight logs for the most recent three complete months, in native CSV, showing for each flight the date, time, launch site, mission or call type, associated CAD or incident number, requesting unit, duration, and disposition.
5. The UAS inventory (make, model, and registration number) and the launch/dock locations.
6. The data-retention and deletion schedule; where drone video, imagery, and telemetry are stored; and whether that data is aggregated into a real-time crime center, evidence platform, or third-party system.
7. All invoices, purchase orders, payments, grant applications and awards, and donation agreements for the UAS program.
8. Records showing compliance with N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-300.1 — any warrant, court order, or written exception relied on for UAS surveillance of a person or private real property.
9. Any records of misuse, complaints, or discipline involving the drone program, and any data-sharing agreement or camera/ALPR-integration communications.

If the agency does not operate any UAS/drone program, please confirm that in writing. If any portion is withheld, please cite the specific statute and produce the remainder. I am not required to state a purpose (§ 132-6(b)). Please acknowledge receipt.

Respectfully,
[Your Name]
[Optional: city / contact email]

These are general information about the public-records process, not legal advice.

One trap to avoid

The Excel row limit can silently delete half the records

This one is worth knowing before you file, because it has already cost real data. Flock exports its audit logs as CSV files, and a busy network can run to millions of rows. Microsoft Excel can only hold about 1,048,576 rows. If an agency exports the CSV, opens it in Excel to redact a column, and saves it back to CSV, Excel silently drops every row past that limit — no warning, no error. You receive a file that looks complete and is missing weeks or months of searches.

We have seen exactly this happen: monthly audit files produced to us ended at precisely 1,048,575 data rows — Excel’s ceiling — which is the fingerprint of a truncated export, not a true monthly total.

How to keep it from happening to your request:

Ask for the native Flock export, unaltered. Request the CSV as Flock generates it from the Insights/Audit tab — not a copy that was opened and re-saved in Microsoft Excel. If a field must be redacted, ask that it be done without passing the whole file through Excel.
Ask for the data in smaller chunks. Request each month — or, for a high-volume network, each week or a specific date range — as its own file, so no single export approaches the row limit.
Ask the agency to confirm the row counts. Have them state the number of rows in each file and confirm the export was not truncated at Excel’s limit. Any file that stops at 1,048,575 or 1,048,576 rows is a red flag.
You can insist on the format. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 132-6.2(a) lets you choose the format when the agency keeps the record electronically — so you can require the native CSV rather than a re-processed copy.

Already received a suspiciously round file? Send it to us — we can check the row counts and tell you whether it was cut off.

Questions, answered

The process, plainly

Do I have to say why I want the records?

No. North Carolina’s public-records law lets any person request records without giving a reason. You don’t have to be a resident, a journalist, or a lawyer.

Can I remain anonymous?

Largely, yes. You can file from a simple email account, and you are not required to give your reason or affiliation. Note that the address you send from — and any name on it — can itself become part of the record, so use one you’re comfortable with. When we publish a response, we keep the requester’s identity private; the records are public, the requester need not be.

What does it cost?

Inspecting records is free. If you want copies, the agency may charge the actual cost of duplication — usually little or nothing for electronic files. Ask for electronic copies to keep it free.

How long does the agency have to respond?

North Carolina sets no fixed deadline. The statute requires records be produced ‘as promptly as possible.’ A written request plus a polite follow-up after a week or two is the best way to keep it moving.

What if they refuse or redact everything?

Ask them to cite the specific statute that authorizes withholding, and to produce everything that isn’t exempt. Captured plate data itself is confidential under state law, but contracts, policies, invoices, and audit logs generally are not. If an agency redacts who searched the system, that refusal is itself worth documenting — it’s exactly the fight we’re having with New Hanover County.

Which agency should I ask?

Start with whoever holds the contract. For a county Flock system that’s typically the Sheriff’s Office; for a town, the Police Department or Town Clerk. You can send the same request to more than one agency — the county, the city police, and the sheriff may each hold different pieces.

You filed — now what

Send us what you get

Whether the agency produces the records or stonewalls, tell us. We’ll publish the response, add the agency to our running list, and name the ones that refuse.

Email Us Your Response See who we’ve asked →

Or read the documents we’ve already obtained →

Filed already and got a refusal? Here’s what an agency’s “no” really means — and your next move →

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.

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Request Flock Records in NC: A Guide