DeFlockILM Newsletter #1
We Won! 😀 🥳
Friends,
Welcome to the first DeFlockILM newsletter. You signed a petition, and change.org keeps your email — not us — so this is the first time we can reach you directly. We're glad you're here.
First, the news: we won. On September 8, 2026, the New Hanover County Commissioners voted 4–0 to cancel the county's Flock contract. Residents packed the room, the record was undeniable, and the Board acted. Your name was part of that. And it was the result of many people and many diverse organizations coming together to make it happen. That is what democracy looks like! Thank you!
Here's a short update from us on where things stand and what we're planning next:
▶️ Watch: Flock Surveillance — A Call for Freedom (2:48)
Do these three things today
A county vote only reaches the county's cameras. The fight now runs from Raleigh down to the beach towns and the counties around us — and here's where you come in:
- Sign the statewide petition. It didn't exist until we built it. → https://change.org/EndFlockNC
- Email your leaders. One click loads a ready-to-send message to the right officials — your county board, town council, legislators, even the Governor. → https://deflockilm.org/find-your-representatives/
- Share this with one neighbor. That is exactly how fifteen NC communities got to "no."
The momentum is real
Fifteen North Carolina towns and counties have now removed or rejected Flock — eight by public vote, seven that stopped it before it took hold. It is not a left or right issue; it's a warrant issue.
👉 The running scoreboard: https://deflockilm.org/nc-communities-rejecting-flock/
The misconduct keeps surfacing — always after the damage
Every North Carolina Flock failure we know of came to light after someone was harmed, never before: a Charlotte-Mecklenburg officer criminally charged, a Mooresville officer who ran the system 31 times to stalk a private citizen (with ten more officers reviewed in that one department), a Brunswick deputy resigned under SBI review, and wrongful stops of innocent drivers.
👉 The full misuse tracker: https://deflockilm.org/nc-flock-misuse/
Go deeper: what the records actually show
These are heavier reads, but they're the backbone of everything we do — all drawn from the government's own documents:
- The records are going dark. How agencies are redacting who searched: https://deflockilm.org/flock-records-going-dark/
- Search abuse in the Cape Fear. What the audit logs reveal about who's really running our cameras: https://deflockilm.org/flock-search-abuse-cape-fear/
- Who authorized all this? The surveillance that was never voted on: https://deflockilm.org/who-authorized-nc-surveillance/
- The Sheriff's real camera network. Far bigger than the Flock contract everyone argued about: https://deflockilm.org/new-hanover-sheriff-camera-network/
- North Carolina's surveillance infrastructure. The statewide picture, connected: https://deflockilm.org/north-carolina-surveillance-infrastructure/
- Design for the worst sheriff. Why "trust us" is not a safeguard: https://deflockilm.org/design-for-the-worst-sheriff/
On the ground: the Cape Fear beat
Carolina Beach. The Town Council meeting was well attended, and roughly 50 petition signers in town want these cameras gone. So far the Council has not signaled it shares the concern — which is exactly why turnout and public comment have to continue.
Wrightsville Beach. The Town removed and criminally charged an officer for misusing its plate readers — and is still declining to release the public records that would show the full picture. We ask: What are they hiding?
Kure Beach. Quiet for now, with little movement from the Town — but the audit data (2.56 million searches over five months, 92.5% from outside North Carolina) hasn't gone anywhere.
Brunswick County. Heating up. Commissioner Sykes has pressed Sheriff Chism with pointed, specific questions — and in our reading, the Sheriff's answers still don't tell the whole story. We're staying on it. (Our fact-check: https://deflockilm.org/sheriff-chism-flock-claims-fact-checked/) And the social media we have published on this has gotten a ton of traction — go watch!
Pender County. We just received records back — but, like the other local sheriffs' offices, real transparency doesn't yet appear to be the practice. We're reviewing what they produced, and what they didn't.
Keep the pressure on
We won New Hanover because people refused to be tracked in silence. Now we finish the beach towns, hold the surrounding counties to account, and take it statewide.
Sign: https://change.org/EndFlockNC
Email your leaders: https://deflockilm.org/find-your-representatives/
Thank you for standing with us. Thank you to everyone who came together to make this happen! We could not have done it without you! We have more work to do. The cameras count everyone — so should your voice.
— DeFlockILM
P.S. — Come find us. Some of our posts have topped 1.2 million views in the past week, and a few of them are actually funny. We'd love for you to join the conversation, share what lands, and tag a friend who drives:
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