Michelle Stedman Public Comment
The short version: A New Hanover County resident's public comment, filmed by DeFlockILM, shows local pushback building against the county's Flock ALPR network.
Our Take
Credit to DeFlockILM for documenting Michelle Stedman's public comment to the New Hanover County Commissioners — this is exactly the kind of grassroots accountability work that keeps local Flock deployments from sliding through unquestioned. Public comment periods are often the only formal chance residents get to put elected officials on record about surveillance infrastructure that was frequently approved with little public debate in the first place.
We don't have the full transcript here, and we won't pretend to summarize her remarks beyond what's shown, but the fact that a resident felt compelled to speak directly to commissioners about ALPR cameras says something on its own. These systems quietly log the movements of every driver, not just suspects, and once a county signs a contract, reversing course gets harder every year the cameras stay up.
If you're in New Hanover County or anywhere else wondering whether Flock cameras are already watching your commute, check our camera map to see what's been documented near you, and visit our take-action page for tools to bring this same kind of scrutiny to your own county commission.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of DeFlockILM, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.