One day. Two rooms. Be there. 📣
Friends,
Last time, we shared good news: on September 8 the New Hanover County Commissioners voted 4–0 to cancel the county's Flock plate readers. You helped make that happen.
And there's more to celebrate. 🎉 On October 1, the Town of Atkinson, in Pender County, banned license-plate-reader cameras outright — Flock included — within its limits. No carve-outs, no pilot, no wait-and-see: the first outright ALPR ban in North Carolina. A town of a few hundred people did what no other jurisdiction in the state had done, grounding it in its own police power and the "law of the land" clause of the NC Constitution. Proof that any community can say no — and make it stick. → https://deflockilm.org/atkinson-first-nc-flock-ban/
Now comes the part that finishes it. On Monday, October 19, two different boards take up Flock on the very same day — one in Wilmington in the morning, one in Bolivia that evening. The cameras count everyone. On the 19th, the people get to count back. We need you in one of those rooms.
Here's the simplest thing we'll ask of you all month: show up and speak. Numbers move commissioners. Five speakers is a comment period. Twenty-five is a moment a board can't ignore.
New Hanover — 9:00 AM — take down the Condors
The Board canceled the plate readers. But eight Flock "Condor" cameras are still running — remotely steerable live video an operator can aim and zoom at anyone in a public park, including the playgrounds and ball fields at Ogden Park and Veterans Park. You don't have to be doing anything wrong to be watched by them. That's the problem.
🗓 Monday, Oct. 19, 9:00 AM — New Hanover County Historic Courthouse, 24 N. Third St., Room 301, Wilmington. Arrive about 15 minutes early to sign in. Public comment is the last item, so plan to stay.
Read the full case (and share it): https://deflockilm.org/new-hanover-take-down-condors-cancel-flock/
Where the eight cameras are, and how to spot one: https://deflockilm.org/flock-condor-cameras/
Why "we canceled Flock" isn't the whole story yet: https://deflockilm.org/new-hanover-flock-refund-condors-still-on/
Brunswick — 6:00 PM — turn the pause into a vote
Same day, one county south. On September 21 the Brunswick County Commissioners voted 5–0 to pause new ALPR purchases and "review" Flock for 30 days — but set no date for an actual vote, and that clock is almost up. We've since confirmed the Sheriff's earlier plate-reader policy required no audit at all — the one safeguard North Carolina law makes mandatory — until the version dated the very day the misuse went public. Don't let it get buried.
🗓 Monday, Oct. 19, 6:00 PM — Commissioners' Chambers, David R. Sandifer Administration Building, 30 Government Center Dr NE, Bolivia. Public comment is open.
A policy did exist — and what it left out was worse than none: https://deflockilm.org/brunswick-alpr-policy-no-audit/
Everything we know about Brunswick's program: https://deflockilm.org/flock-cameras-brunswick-county/
You can make the morning meeting in Wilmington and the evening meeting in Bolivia. If you can only do one, do the one that's yours.
Not in New Hanover or Brunswick? There's a meeting for you too
Flock is on the table across the region. The Pender, Columbus, and Onslow County Commissioners each hold public comment at their regular meetings, and so do the beach-town councils in Carolina Beach, Kure Beach, and Wrightsville Beach. We keep every date, time, and location — with the official agenda links — on one page, updated as new meetings are set.
👉 Find your meeting: https://deflockilm.org/events/
Can't be in the room? Do these three things today
Sign both petitions — your name counts locally and statewide.
Cape Fear (local): https://change.org/DeFlockILM
North Carolina (statewide): https://change.org/EndFlockNC
Email your leaders. One click loads a ready-to-send message to the right officials — your county board, town council, and legislators. → https://deflockilm.org/email-your-leaders/
Ask every candidate where they stand. It's election season. Before you vote, make them answer on the record: Will you end warrantless Flock surveillance — Condors included? A candidate who won't answer has told you the answer.
New to public comment? Two minutes with our talking points and you'll walk in ready: https://deflockilm.org/talking-points/
New on the site
All drawn from the government's own records:
North Carolina counted its own plate readers — and New Hanover leads the state. We read all 180 pages of the SBI's final report: 319,641,653 plates captured, the single biggest capturer in NC is the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office, and the state plans to oversee the whole thing with one employee. → https://deflockilm.org/nc-sbi-final-alpr-report/
A model resolution your board can adopt now — one version for a county, one for a town, each grounded in NC statute. → https://deflockilm.org/nc-model-surveillance-resolution/
The running scoreboard: seventeen NC communities have already said no. → https://deflockilm.org/nc-communities-rejecting-flock/
The full misuse tracker — every NC Flock failure we know of came to light only after someone was harmed. → https://deflockilm.org/nc-flock-misuse/
Keep the pressure on
We won New Hanover's plate readers because people refused to be tracked in silence. Now we finish the Condors, hold Brunswick to its own pause, and keep going. It is not a left or right issue — it's a warrant issue.
See you October 19. The cameras count everyone — so should your voice.
— DeFlockILM
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