A network of AI cameras now photographs and logs the movements of nearly every driver in Union County, people suspected of nothing. The county pays a private company for it, and cannot even say who's searching the data. The contract comes up for renewal in 2027. It can still be stopped.
These are automated license plate readers, made by a company called Flock. They don't watch for a crime in progress. They photograph every passing vehicle and store the record so it can be searched later: where you were, and when.
The data isn't even held here. It sits on the company's servers in another state, reachable through a national network of agencies, beyond the reach of North Carolina law.
Every marker is a reported automated license plate reader. Zoom into your own neighborhood. This map is maintained by DeFlock, a community project that documents ALPR cameras nationwide.
When a resident asked the county the most basic questions about the system watching its citizens, it couldn't answer, and pointed to the vendor. A system the county can't see, can't audit, and doesn't control isn't public safety. It's surveillance for hire.
At the June 16, 2026 budget meeting, the Sheriff's Office asked the Commission to fund another year of Flock. This is that presentation, from the county's official recording. Watch it, then read what the records show.
He's right that people willingly sign up for their phones. That is the whole point. No one signed up for this. The difference between a phone and a Flock camera is consent, and the county names consent as exactly what makes the phone acceptable. These cameras record people who never agreed to anything.
For four years the program ran with no policy at all, until a resident pointed it out. The first replacement, written overnight, fell short of the statute's nine requirements by the county's own admission. A program governed this loosely, this late, is not one the county has ever truly controlled.
Union County can end this on its own terms: no penalty, on 30 days' written notice. The decision runs on the county budget calendar, and there are clear moments where residents' voices count. Here is when.
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 Flock funding sits inside the Sheriff's Office appropriation. 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 decides whether to fund the contract for another year. This is the moment. To fund it is a choice; to decline is the county's clean, penalty-free exit.
Unless the county has chosen to fund and renew it. The power to let it end already belongs to the people Union County elects.
Budget dates follow the county's usual calendar and will be confirmed when the FY2028 schedule is set.
This case rests on the county's own documents, not on anyone's characterization of them. Download and read them.
PRR Sheriff's Records ResponseThe Sheriff's Office answer to a resident's records request: including the records it could not produce, and the audit it would not release. ↓ POL Union County ALPR PolicySheriff's Office Policy 334: the rules governing the camera system, adopted 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. ↓ CON Flock ContractThe agreement the county signed with Flock: the terms that hand data control to the vendor. ↓It renews only if the county funds it: a decision the five commissioners make with your money, in next year's budget. Between now and then, this comes down to whether the people who live here speak up.
Public comment is built for exactly this: a resident telling the people who hold the county's checkbook what they think. Most speakers are not polished, and the Board has heard plenty of nervous voices before yours. Here's what it actually involves.
Sign up before the meeting using the county's register-to-speak form. You'll typically get up to three minutes at the podium during public comment.
You're welcome to read from a script. Write three minutes' worth, roughly 400 words, and read it aloud a few times the day before, to yourself, to family, to the mirror. Practiced words still sound like you when they come from the heart.
Dress respectfully, the way you would for church or a job interview. Arrive on time, and plan to stay for the meeting's start. Sign in, take a seat, and wait to be called.
Address the Board respectfully. Thank them for their time. Disagree firmly, but never rudely, this is your neighbors' government, and the tone you bring is remembered as much as the words.
Facts persuade, but conviction is what people remember. You don't have to be an expert. You have to be a resident who believes, plainly and honestly, that people who've done nothing wrong shouldn't be filmed, logged, and tracked by a machine anyway.
"Innocent people shouldn't be filmed simply for existing. That's not a legal argument. It's just true, and it's worth three minutes of your time to say so out loud."