{"id":261917,"date":"2026-06-02T05:49:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T09:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/02\/wect-investigates-flock-cameras-spark-debate-between-safety-and-privacy\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T08:25:48","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T12:25:48","slug":"wect-investigates-flock-cameras-spark-debate-between-safety-and-privacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/02\/wect-investigates-flock-cameras-spark-debate-between-safety-and-privacy\/","title":{"rendered":"WECT INVESTIGATES: Flock cameras spark debate between safety and privacy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wect.com\/2026\/06\/01\/wect-investigates-flock-cameras-spark-debate-between-safety-privacy\/\">WECT INVESTIGATES: Flock cameras spark debate between safety and privacy<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wect.com\/2026\/06\/01\/wect-investigates-flock-cameras-spark-debate-between-safety-privacy\/\">https:\/\/www.wect.com\/2026\/06\/01\/wect-investigates-flock-cameras-spark-debate-between-safety-privacy\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-06-02 05:49:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.wect.com\">www.wect.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) &#8211; License plate readers have become a staple of roads nationwide, including in southeastern North Carolina, sparking a debate between safety and privacy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Flock cameras take pictures of license plates every time a vehicle drives past, with the pictures then uploaded into a server and kept, typically, for at least 30 days before being deleted. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Law enforcement can use the cameras to search a license plate, or even the type or color of a car, to see every place and time a vehicle drove past a reader within the timeframe the scans are available. It\u2019s a useful tool for law enforcement, but critics argue it\u2019s an example of government outreach. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI believe in freedom. I didn\u2019t sign up to live in China. And I don\u2019t want the government watching me,\u201d said Mark Williams, a Wilmington attorney who\u2019s part of the DeFlock organization. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">A map created by DeFlock, a national organization advocating against Flock cameras, reveals license plate readers in all five counties in southeastern North Carolina. The map uses crowdsourced data to show where cameras are located.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The New Hanover, Brunswick, Pender and Columbus County Sheriff\u2019s Offices all confirmed they have contracts with Flock. The Wilmington Police Department doesn\u2019t have a contract, a city spokesperson confirmed. The New Hanover County Sheriff\u2019s Office\u2019s deal with Flock is for $219,000, according to a copy of the agreement obtained through a public records request. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">None of the sheriff\u2019s offices agreed to answer questions on camera.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">A spokesperson for the New Hanover County Sheriff\u2019s Office said the agency uses the readers \u201cas another investigative tool to help protect the community and support public safety efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cMuch like surveillance cameras or witness statements, ALPR technology helps deputies identify vehicles connected to criminal investigations, locate stolen vehicles, and develop investigative leads,\u201d the spokesperson\u2019s statement said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">A spokesperson for&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wect.com\/2026\/06\/01\/wect-investigates-flock-cameras-spark-debate-between-safety-privacy\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WECT INVESTIGATES: Flock cameras spark debate between safety and privacy https:\/\/www.wect.com\/2026\/06\/01\/wect-investigates-flock-cameras-spark-debate-between-safety-privacy\/ Publish Date: 2026-06-02 05:49:00&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":261918,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/gray-wect-prod.gtv-cdn.com\/resizer\/v2\/5WEZLYADMNAB3DGOY7OTI5RFWM.png?auth=846f58b6e5362ec8f93f2bd4b5c76af82b638662471a0ff83eabea24922e4af4&width=1200&height=600&smart=true","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-261917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-privacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261917"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261917"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":261919,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261917\/revisions\/261919"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}