2026 08 17 25 Public Comment
The short version: A New Hanover County resident's public comment on Flock ALPR cameras, filmed by DeFlockILM, shows local accountability pressure building against county surveillance.
Our Take
Credit where it's due: the folks behind DeFlockILM are doing the unglamorous, essential work of showing up to county commissioner meetings and getting public comment on the record. This clip from the Aug. 17 New Hanover County meeting is a reminder that most Flock Safety deployments never get a real public vote — they get a staff recommendation, a quiet contract signature, and cameras in the ground before most residents even know the conversation happened. When someone stands up at the podium and asks commissioners to actually account for that, it matters.
These small, local moments are where ALPR policy actually gets made or unmade. County commissioners control budgets, contracts, and renewal votes — which means public comment sessions like this one are one of the few levers residents have before systems like Flock's network become permanent fixtures. New Hanover County joins a long list of jurisdictions where officials are being asked to explain retention periods, data-sharing agreements, and whether any of this is actually reducing crime or just reducing privacy.
If you want to see whether your own county has quietly rolled out this kind of surveillance, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back the way this resident did, our take-action page has tools to help you show up at your own commissioners meeting.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of DeFlockILM, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.