Wilmington is under warrantless AI surveillance — every drive past a camera is logged, kept, and searchable. It’s time to act.

Wilmington · New Hanover County ☰

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 Flock Organization Audit, Network Audit, and Event Log, the contract, the ALPR policy, and any data-sharing agreements. The template below does 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

The request template

Replace the bracketed parts, paste it into an email to the agency’s records custodian, and send. This is the same nine-item template we’ve used to file across North Carolina.

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.

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]

This is 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