Flock License Plate Readers

At a glance

What: Council directed the City Manager to terminate the City's contract with Flock Safety, which supplied eleven stationary automated license plate readers (ALPRs), and to review the City's use of the technology.
Where it stands: Resolution 26-180 passed 5-2 on August 25, 2026 (Vice-Mayor Mosley and Councilwoman Smith voted no). On September 8, a public speaker thanked Council for cancelling the Flock cameras.
Next: The City Manager is to return with information and policy recommendations on whether and how any such technology would be used. The Manager said no stationary Axon ALPRs will be installed until a community conversation happens.

Effective on adoption: terminate the Flock contract and ask Flock to remove its hardware.
City employees may not access, search, query, analyze or share Flock data; existing data is retained, preserved or deleted under applicable law and records rules, and none is to be shared or queried.
Facial recognition: the City says it uses none, and no Flock data may be linked or matched with any outside facial recognition database.
The Manager must review ten topics: permitted investigation categories, search and access limits, retention and deletion, data sharing with other agencies, an independent civil-liberties policy reviewer with North Carolina municipal experience, auditing, protection of information on immigration enforcement, reproductive healthcare and First Amendment activity, public reporting, oversight and consequences for misuse, and whether use should resume and under what safeguards.
No purchase, lease, activation or deployment of Flock technology, or a new Flock agreement, during the review.

Mayor Manheimer said the charter bars Council from directing the Police Department's operations, which is why the direction goes to the City Manager. The City controls only its own eleven readers, not those of the Housing Authority, schools or private owners. The City also has a contract with Axon (dashcams, body cameras) that would allow Axon stationary readers, which the City does not have today; the Mayor described Axon as a closed system and Flock as an integrated national system.
Interim Chief Stepp said Flock data is on a 21-day retention schedule and anything older is automatically purged; data tied to active cases was uploaded to the Axon evidence system and follows the statutory records schedule.
City Manager Wesley said staff had not planned to cover the cameras while waiting for removal but would evaluate it, and promised Council a notice when the data is deleted.

Councilwoman Roney moved the resolution. She cited data vulnerability, warrantless searches, possible use by federal immigration authorities, misuse headlines, and doubts that clearance rates improved. She asked that the City review a possible breach of Flock's contract after a tour of the Real Time Crime Center, and asked for an advisory committee role for the civil-liberties community. She also objected that the resolution mentions possibly resuming use.
Councilwoman Turner seconded and said six members had already voted earlier to terminate Flock and this vote speeds the process. She asked that the review bring solutions for crime, not only objections.
Councilman Hess supported ending the Flock contract but not weakening the Police Department; he supports restoring a police oversight commission and described the readers as helping locate stolen vehicles and missing people and develop leads after shootings.
Councilwoman Ullman supported removing the Flock cameras and urged nuance on surveillance tools generally.
Vice-Mayor Mosley voted no. She said she has concerns about privacy and data sharing but that the decision felt political in an election season, and she read an email from Housing Authority CEO Ella Santos saying residents want cameras and more security.
Councilwoman Smith voted no, saying she had not heard what would replace the tool in the meantime.

Twenty-four speakers supported terminating the contract and pausing all ALPR use and purchases from every vendor while the City revisits the question with public input and independent experts.
Two speakers opposed terminating it, noting it is a tool for police.

Councilwoman Roney then moved to add an item for a moratorium on future purchase of Axon ALPRs. The City Attorney said it needed a motion to add it to the agenda; that motion died for lack of a second.

Under public comment, a speaker raised concern about the use of body cameras and other mass surveillance. No action.

A public speaker thanked Council for cancelling the Flock surveillance cameras. No action.

Resolution 26-180 adopted 5-2 after extended debate (see above). A follow-on moratorium motion on Axon readers died for lack of a second.