Union County and its towns pay Flock Safety, an $8 billion tech company located in Atlanta, to photograph every car on our roads, uniquely identify it, link it to its owner, and store a record of where we went in a searchable database. Flock then sells access to that information to organizations the Fourth Amendment normally restrains.
Every car that passes gets photographed, about 28 images each time, whether or not anyone is a suspect.
The photos go to Flock's servers and become a searchable record of where our cars have been, and where you live, work, worship and shop.
Police pay for access, with search tools like Flock NOVA and FreeForm. In Alpharetta, Georgia, about 2,000 agencies could search one city's cameras.
The county's December 2025 contract pays Flock $288,100 over two years for 54 cameras and Flock Nova, and the 2027 budget added $61,500.
The company sells to police what police would otherwise need a warrant to collect.
Stay up to date on what the Union County Board of Commissioners is deciding and receive invitations to local events and short trainings on how to speak at meetings.
Here is a map of Union County. Zoom in on your own neighborhood and see the cameras you drive past every day. The map comes from DeFlock, a community project that documents these cameras across the country.
Union County's towns have their own cameras, and their own councils decide whether to fund them. Each page lists the votes, the costs and the records, with links to the source documents.
This is how the county's own agenda item 25-744 (December 8, 2025) describes what Flock and Flock NOVA can do:
The contract attached to the same agenda item describes Flock Nova as including "access to open source intelligence (OSINT) and shared inter-agency data," and lists "Unlimited users."
Source: Union County Board of Commissioners agenda item 25-744, December 8, 2025, and the contract attached to it.
These statements were made to the Board of County Commissioners before the Board voted on another year of Flock funding. Next to each one is what researchers, courts and public records have found.
We're not surveilling anybody. Nobody's following you in that car down the road.
The cameras record every car that passes, and the photos stay searchable, so nobody has to follow you. In Norfolk, Virginia, court discovery showed one driver's car was recorded 475 times in four months. Union County's own December 2025 agenda item describes its Flock software as offering "retrospective searches, analysis, and movement tracking opportunities."
It captures a license plate, a description, a picture of that car.
Researchers who have read Flock's NOVA code report that it can take one plate and link it to the registered owner. FreeForm lets an investigator search by plain English description, such as clothing or vehicle features. The county's December 2025 contract lists Vehicle Fingerprint search, State and Nationwide network lookup ("10 billion additional plate reads per month"), and the ability to request access to privately owned Flock cameras in neighborhoods, schools and businesses. Which of these the county has turned on is not known.
There's a diminished, if any, expectation of privacy in the public domain.
Flock is not selling cameras or license plate readers. It is selling a record of where people have been. In Chatrie v. United States (June 2026) the Supreme Court ruled 6 to 3 that when police query stored location history, they are conducting a search under the Fourth Amendment. Carpenter v. United States (2018) said the same about cell tower records. Querying a database of people's movements is a search, and that is what a Flock query is. One photo taken on a public road is not the issue. A searchable log of where your car has been is.
Your phone's tracking everything you're doing, but people willingly sign up for that.
Nobody signs up for a camera on a pole, and the data does not stay local. In August 2025 the Illinois Secretary of State found that U.S. Customs and Border Protection had accessed Illinois license plate data, which he called a clear violation of state law. Security researchers Jon Gaines and Benn Jordan found Flock cameras running an outdated Android system, with debugging features left on and weak wireless passwords.
We believe we're comfortable that that policy is in full compliance with state statute.
State statute requires an annual effectiveness audit. There has not yet been one published.
Quotes are from the official meeting transcript. Researcher findings are summarized from the linked reports.
It began in 2022 with a $27,750 purchase, small enough that no board vote was needed. The current contract ends December 22, 2027, and it does not renew on its own.
The automatic renewal language was struck from the order form. Any renewal needs a written amendment signed by both the county and Flock (Section 7.1). The county can also end the contract with 30 days' written notice if it is not funded (Section 11.15). So the decision runs on the budget calendar, and there are clear moments where your voice counts, listed below.
Flock arrives in Union County through a $27,750 purchase small enough that no Board vote was needed.
Board item 23-179. A two-year contract for 10 cameras, $53,500.
Board item 24-693. Renewed for $51,000 over two years.
Board item 25-744, on the consent agenda. A new two-year contract with Union County as the customer, replacing the earlier agreements: 38 license plate cameras, one portable and one long-range plate camera, 14 live video cameras and Flock Nova. $288,100 over two years: $145,600 the first year and $142,500 the second, before tax. The contract describes Nova as access to "open source intelligence (OSINT) and shared inter-agency data."
After a resident pointed out on March 16 that state statute requires a policy, the Sheriff's Office writes Policy 334 on March 17. It is revised and expanded on April 20.
The Board hears a Sheriff's Office presentation and funds a further $61,500.
A request for the sharing settings and the search audit logs. Pending.
Everything above has already happened. Everything below is still ahead, and the next step is yours.
The months before the budget is written are when public pressure matters most. Contact your commissioners. Speak at meetings. Tell your neighbors what's here.
The proposed FY2028 budget is filed with the clerk. The Board adopts the budget that includes the Flock funding. Once it's public, anyone can read it.
The residents' formal, on-the-record chance to speak before the vote. First Monday of June, 6 p.m., 500 N. Main Street, Monroe.
The Board adopts the FY2028 budget.
The contract expires unless the county signs a written renewal. The decision belongs to the people Union County elects.
Sources: Union County Board agenda items 23-179, 24-693 and 25-744; Flock contract (effective Dec 23, 2025) and the unsigned copy attached to item 25-744; UCSO Policy 334; UCSO public records responses; June 16, 2026 Board recording; FY2027 budget.
Budget dates follow the county's usual calendar and will be confirmed when the FY2028 schedule is set.
The commissioners make this decision in the 2027 budget, and they decide based on who they hear from, so the sooner they hear from us the better.
Public comment is where residents tell the County Commissioners what they think about the county's direction. The Board meets the first and third Mondays at 6 p.m. at 500 N. Main St., Monroe. Register to speak →
And tell your neighbors, since most people have no idea this is here.
All of this rests on public records. Download them and read them for yourself.
PRR Sheriff's Records ResponseThe Sheriff's Office response to a resident's records request, including the records it declined to release under state law. ↓ POL Union County ALPR PolicySheriff's Office Policy 334: the rules governing the camera system, revised and expanded April 20, 2026. ↓ TRN Flock Training MaterialsThe internal training emails and deck: including the instruction that data must be downloaded from Flock to be preserved. ↓ PRR Signed Flock Contract (from records request)The signed contract, effective Dec 23, 2025, as released in response to a public records request, with portions redacted. ↓ CON Unredacted, Unsigned ContractThe full contract attached to Board item 25-744 (Dec 8, 2025), before signatures: 38 license plate cameras, one portable and one long-range plate camera, 14 video cameras and Flock Nova, $288,100 over two years, with Flock's terms and conditions. ↓