Flock cameras raise questions across ENC

Our Take

Credit to WNCT-TV 9 On Your Side for doing what local newsrooms should be doing more of: putting a microphone in front of regular people and asking what they think about the camera networks quietly going up around them. The fact that "many people are sharing their opinions" is itself the story — these systems rarely get a public vote, a town hall, or even a press release before they're installed on the road you drive every day.

This is the pattern we see over and over: a police department signs a contract with Flock Safety, cameras appear on utility poles and intersections, and residents find out only after the fact, usually by noticing the boxes themselves or reading about it in the local paper. Eastern North Carolina isn't unique — it's one more data point in a nationwide rollout that's happening faster than most city councils can meaningfully debate it, let alone most voters can weigh in on.

If you want to see whether there's a logged camera near you, check our map, and if you'd rather push back than just watch it happen, our take-action page has concrete steps for raising this with your local government before the next contract renewal goes through unnoticed.