2026 08 17 15 Public Comment
The short version: A New Hanover County resident's public comment pushes back on Flock ALPR cameras, and DeFlockILM is on the ground documenting it.
Our Take
This is exactly the kind of grassroots accountability work that keeps local surveillance expansion from sailing through on autopilot. Credit to DeFlockILM for showing up at the New Hanover County Commissioners meeting and getting a resident's public comment on the record — these three-minute mic moments rarely make the news, but they're often the only friction a county board encounters before it rubber-stamps another Flock contract.
Public comment periods matter more than most people realize. Commissioners vote on ALPR deployments based on vendor pitches about "solving crime," and absent pushback, there's no counterweight in the room pointing out what's actually being built: a county-wide network logging every car that passes, retained and searchable, often shared with other agencies with little public oversight. One resident standing up and saying so, on camera, creates a record that outlasts the meeting itself.
If you're in New Hanover County or anywhere else watching this pattern repeat, don't wait for someone else to be the lone voice at the podium. Check our map to see what's already deployed near you, and use our take-action guide to figure out how to show up at your own commissioners meeting before the next vote.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of DeFlockILM, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.