Carolina Beach needs your voice — Tuesday, Sept. 8, 6:00 PM
Carolina Beach is next. Be in the room.
Read the Carolina Beach story first → https://deflockilm.org/flock-cameras-carolina-beach/
Carolina Beach residents have signed against Flock in greater numbers than any other beach town on the Cape Fear coast. Now the Town Council meets, and public comment is where that opposition becomes a record the Council cannot ignore.
Tuesday, September 8, 2026 · 6:00 PM
Council Chambers, 1121 N. Lake Park Blvd, Carolina Beach
Come speak. Three minutes at the microphone — your street, your family, your plate driving past a camera that logs it every time — carries more weight than any letter. If you would rather listen than speak, come anyway; a full room is its own message. Everything you need to know about the Town's cameras is on the page above.
You do not have to live in Carolina Beach to have a stake in this. If you dine in its restaurants, drink in its bars, or spend a day at Freeman Park, then your plate is read and stored when you visit — and you have every right to tell the Council what you think of the surveillance you are driving into. You also have every right to spend your money in towns that do not track you.
Where this stands: the harm is no longer hypothetical.
Since our last update, the record of Flock failures in North Carolina has grown — and every one surfaced after the damage was done, never before.
Right next door, in Brunswick County. On Sept. 1, Sheriff Brian Chism disclosed that a routine Flock audit flagged alleged misuse by an employee, who resigned — the matter is now under N.C. SBI review. It surfaced only because the audit caught it, and it happened in the county bordering ours.
Reidsville. On Aug. 20, police put Amadeus Purcell under four patrol cars in his own driveway after a Flock camera flagged his car for 100 mph — minutes after he got home from Wendy's. A timestamped receipt cleared him; officers then admitted the real car had different headlights. He has filed a federal complaint and started his own petition.
Two officers charged in a week. The SBI charged a Charlotte-Mecklenburg officer (July 29) with an unauthorized Flock search of an NC plate, and a Mooresville officer (Aug. 5) who ran the database 31 times to stalk a private citizen — with ten more officers in that one department under investigation.
Wrongful arrests. Women in Fayetteville and Charlotte have already been wrongfully detained over plate-reader errors, with settlements paid.
See the running record → https://deflockilm.org/nc-flock-misuse/
The big one: New Hanover County, September 21.
On August 17, residents packed the New Hanover County Commissioners chamber. Dozens spoke. Not one spoke in favor. No vote was taken — the Board committed to take the Flock program up again at its next meeting.
Monday, September 21, 2026 · 4:00 PM · Historic Courthouse, Room 301, Wilmington.
This is the meeting that decides whether the County continues, expands, or ends its Flock contract. Put it on your calendar now, and we will remind you before the day.
Get the reminder and the how-to → https://deflockilm.org/september-21/
Three ways to make your voice heard this week.
1) Share the petition. Every signature is a name the Council and the Commissioners have to answer to. Forward it to one neighbor today → https://change.org/DeFlockILM
2) Email your elected officials. One click fills in your representatives and gives you the words if you want them → https://deflockilm.org/email-your-leaders/
3) Show up. Carolina Beach on Sept. 8 at 6:00 PM, New Hanover County on Sept. 21 at 4:00 PM.
Follow the work on our Socials.
Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/DeFlockILM/
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TikTok — https://www.tiktok.com/@deflockilm
X — https://x.com/DeFlockILM
Reddit — https://www.reddit.com/r/DeFlockILM/
Thank you for standing with us. The cameras count everyone. So should your voice.
— DeFlockILM