To our 1,200+ signers — Over 1,200 of you have signed this petition. That number means something — and right now it needs to mean more than a signature. What Is Happening in Raleigh The North Carolina legislature this week advanced House Bill 206, which would make the statewide Flock Safety license plate reader program permanent with no sunset date. The pilot was set to expire July 1, 2026. We want you to know this is happening. But Raleigh is not where our fight is. New Hanover County Is the Fight The Flock network here is a local decision — locally funded, locally contracted, and answerable to the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners. They approved it. They fund it. They can end it. Three North Carolina counties have already done exactly that. Orange County eliminated its Flock system. Hillsborough canceled its contract over data privacy concerns. Chatham County voted to cancel its contract after residents raised alarms about who controls the data and how it is shared. The same concerns apply here — and in New Hanover County, they may have legal teeth. The Contract May Violate State Law North Carolina law is specific: captured plate data is confidential, can only be disclosed to a criminal justice officer for a legitimate law enforcement purpose, and only pursuant to a written request. It cannot be sold. The New Hanover County contract with Flock — $219,000 of public money — grants Flock a worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free right to use and analyze the data, including for machine-learning training. It allows Flock to disclose data to government officials or third parties based on Flock's own "good faith belief" that disclosure is appropriate. That standard does not exist in the statute. The contract appears to be broader than state law allows — and that is precisely the problem Hillsborough identified before canceling. The out-of-state data access makes this concrete. Public records show New Hanover County made over 2,099 searches of Buncombe County Flock data in a single month. Out-of-state agencies — Houston, Dallas, Memphis — made tens of thousands of searches of North Carolina Flock data during the same period. Whether any of those searches were accompanied by written requests, as required by law, is unknown. That is not oversight. That is a surveillance network operating without public accountability. Show Up The Board of Commissioners meets regularly. Public comment is open to any resident. Three minutes at a public meeting is more pressure than any online petition. We need residents willing to appear and speak — to say, on the record, that this contract should be canceled. You do not need to be an attorney. You need to be a constituent. Email your county commissioners now through deflockilm.org/email-your-leaders. If you are willing to speak at a meeting or just show up and be counted, contact us through deflockilm.org. We will send you the schedule and everything you need. Orange County said no. Hillsborough said no. Chatham County said no. New Hanover County can too. Your privacy. Your community. Your move. DeFlockILM | Wilmington, NC | deflockilm.org | change.org/DeFlockILM