Gail

Our Take

Local accountability starts exactly like this: a resident named Gail walks up to a microphone at a county commissioners meeting and says what a lot of people are thinking but never get to voice. Credit to DeFlockILM for showing up, filming it, and putting the full context and records on DeFlockILM.org — this is the kind of grassroots documentation that keeps these surveillance programs from sliding through on autopilot.

Flock cameras don't install themselves. They get approved in meeting rooms like this one, often with little public debate and even less scrutiny of who gets access to the data, how long it's retained, or whether it's ever audited for misuse. When residents like Gail push back in person, it forces elected officials to answer questions on the record instead of rubber-stamping a vendor contract behind closed doors.

If you live in New Hanover County or anywhere else, check our camera map to see what's already watching your streets, and head to our take-action page for tools to raise this same kind of pressure at your own county meeting.