Sheriff W. Rogers addresses Columbus County Commissioners about Flock | 03/21/26

Our Take

Credit to DeFlockILM for digging up this clip of Sheriff W. Rogers making the case for Flock Safety cameras directly to Columbus County Commissioners. This is the pattern we see over and over: a local sheriff, often backed by a slick Flock sales rep, walks into a commission meeting and frames automated license plate readers as a simple crime-fighting upgrade. What rarely gets airtime in these pitches is who owns the data, how long it's retained, which outside agencies get access, and whether the county has any real say once the contract is signed.

These commission meetings are the actual decision point for whether a community gets blanketed in surveillance cameras that log every vehicle that passes, regardless of suspicion. Once approved, Flock's network quietly links up with thousands of other jurisdictions' feeds, meaning a decision made in one county courthouse can expose drivers statewide to tracking. Local elected officials are the last line of accountability before that infrastructure goes live, and footage like this is valuable exactly because it shows how thin the public scrutiny often is before the vote.

If you want to see whether Flock or similar ALPR systems have already landed near you, check our camera map, and if a vote like this is coming up in your own county, our take-action page has tools for pushing back before the cameras go up, not after.