UPDATED: Citizens cry “No Vote” over Moore County Flock camera use

A special meeting on Moore County’s Flock cameras answered questions about the technology’s use, authority, security and investigative value, while privacy concerns prompted debate.

The Moore County Commissioners and the sheriff’s department presented data on Flock cameras at a special meeting Aug. 17 at the senior enrichment center.

About 50 citizens attended.

Moore County Sheriff Major Eric Galloway led the discussion and answered questions citizens had emailed prior to the meeting.

The discussion revealed five outstanding facts. 1) The county has 10 cameras; 2) the Supreme Court of the United States ruled they were not a violation of the 4^th Amendment, and 3) citizens cannot vote on their use or funding because they are allowed under state legislation, and 4) they answered why they were needed and 5) clarified security measures.

Session Law 2015-190 (originally introduced as Senate Bill 182), was enacted by the North Carolina General Assembly in 2015. It established Article 3D of Chapter 20 of the North Carolina General Statutes to regulate the use of Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR) Systems.

UPDATE: The 18-month temporary ALPR pilot program was made permanent through a provision tucked into Senate Bill 257, North Carolina’s $34.4 billion state budget signed into law on July 7, 2026. It allows the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) and local law enforcement agencies to permanently place AI-powered license plate cameras within rights-of-way owned or maintained by the North Carolina Department of Transportation.

Law enforcement can operate ALPR systems independently. Sheriffs can adopt them without a vote, referendum, or ballot measure.

Citizens cannot force county commissioners to hold a bond referendum vote on Flock camera funding.

Galloway said the best question asked why they need public surveillance cameras to capture license plates.

Flock cameras speed up investigations, so crime suspects have less time on the streets before apprehension, but they do not solve crimes. Officers must still conduct traditional investigations.

“It identifies a vehicle at a time and place,” Galloway said about strengthening searches and reducing manpower and wait times.

The searchable system allows law enforcement to locate types of vehicles on nearby roads. Searches help locate suspects and people at risk. Moore County does not have the upgraded AI system but is considering it because it allows more specific searches, such as finding a Kubota tractor on a flatbed trailer.

Flock cameras provide vehicle evidence: license plates, which are owned by the state, make, model, color, and unique features.

Statistics do not prove whether the presence of Flock cameras prevents or lowers crime rates, but stats show they provide direct evidence for convictions.

“We have 1,800 Flock cameras in North Carolina, and Lowes Hardware Depot and BJ’s have cameras,” Vice-Chairman Jim Von Canon said about it being an anomaly for someone to believe they are not on camera away from home and the increase of unvetted citizens.

During the discussion on protecting data from bad actors, Galloway said it was not reasonable for a person to climb a pole to steal a Flock camera for its data. “We get an alert…Legally, they can put up a 5k camera and record everybody,” he said about bad actors searching for military targets in the civilian population.

There are roughly 24 million foreign-born residents in the U.S. who are not citizens, according to the Immigration Research Initiative, and in 2024, North Carolina had about 632k.

Sheriff Ronnie Fields said it was “a big plus” to receive alerts of terrorist groups in the area.

“It’s happened recently a few times,” Galloway said.

Commissioners John Ritter and Tom Adams questioned security measures for military residents.

Fields said he warned staff that misuse would result in charges and termination. “The contract reads ‘we do not sell data.’ We can publish [sample of what is captured on film] for the public if the district attorney says it is okay. We can send out monthly statistics,” Fields said about reassuring citizens that the system is not recording people’s private information.

Commissioner Kurt Cook, formerly with special operations, said he understood the sentiment of privacy concerns. “Always a weak link somewhere, and it’s usually a person…one or two instances of information not used for professional reasons,” Cook said about the 4^th Amendment concerns and that the Supreme Court of the United States had said public surveillance cameras that read license plates were not a violation.

Law enforcement is watching the Schmidt v. Norfolk U.S. District Court case with a ruling expected this time next year on whether ALPR’s violate privacy. The court ruled in Jan. that they did not violate 4^th Amendment rights and in April 2026, the American Civil Liberties Union, appealed the ruling.

Norfolk has 176 cameras over 66 square miles.

Galloway said as the courts decide whether Norfolk’s use of cameras is excessive and infringes on rights, the sheriff’s department would abide by the ruling.

When Cook said, “What was delivered today was not one-sided opinion,” the citizens erupted in laughter.

Citizens broke meeting protocol over six times during the meeting with outbursts.

Still, Picerno invited citizens to continue emailing questions.

The meeting ended abruptly after a citizen called out that they did not get to vote on the cameras, and after being given the reason, which was legislation, outbursts continued.

Cook shared that the United States has about 23k hits a day and that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency protects civilian cyber information.

Flock cameras have alerts built in to detect suspicious use.

Galloway said the sheriff’s department was looking at “rolling it [reviewing footage] down to captains and even lower, so they can check in real time.” Galloway said he conducted audits on all activities, and the system records who views what and requires authentication for access.

The data is encrypted with AES-256 for cloud-stored data to prevent guessing the key code, and it uses TLS 1.3 to scramble the data while in transit. Data is deleted after 30 days.

Key Stats

In Flock’s 2025 Impact Census, it reported that one in five cleared cases was a result of ALPR.

Flock supported 1 million investigations and incidents, leading to clearances, leads, cross-jurisdictional assists, and located requests.

ALPR helped locate 10k missing people.

In 2024, Flock claimed it helped solve 700k crimes per year, which was about 10% of all reported U.S. crimes.

Citizens concerned with tracking may want to review the following.

Federal Trade Commission on Retail Tracking

Surveillance Self Defense

Atlas of Surveillance is an interactive mapping tool used by journalists.

Aug. 17, 2026

Stephanie M. Sellers

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