Charlotte residents packed a meeting at Harding University High School this week to confront Flock Safety representatives directly over the company's license plate reader technology, just as the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department works to select a vendor to replace its aging camera system. The gathering brought together Flock officials, elected leaders, and community members at a moment when trust in automated license plate readers has been rattled by a string of local officer misconduct cases.
The meeting was part of a series of discussions between Flock Safety and Charlotte officials as the city considers a new police camera contract, according to WSOC-TV. CMPD is searching for an automatic license plate reader company to partner with, and the request for proposals, issued by the City of Charlotte, seeks a vendor certified by the North Carolina Alarm Systems Licensing Board to build an upgraded, centralized management platform, according to the City of Charlotte's electronic Vendor Portal. Bids remain open until October 5.
Flock Touts Missing Persons Cases While Residents Push Back
At the meeting, Flock public affairs representative Jalen Johnson presented the company's technology and its track record, crediting the system with helping bring home more than 10,000 missing people in 2025 and assisting more than one million investigations across the country, the station reports. Johnson described the cameras as an objective investigatory lead that aids ongoing police work daily, and said Flock stores license plate reader data for seven days before deleting it.
Not everyone in the room was persuaded. Daniel Oria, an activist who co-founded a local group warning residents about privacy risks, argued that license plate readers collect data on citizens regardless of whether they are suspected of wrongdoing, and that the systems operate at a national level, tracking people without their consent. Flock representatives did not confirm whether the company is submitting a proposal for the local contract, and the number and identity of other bidders remains unknown, per the same report.
Advocates for the technology pointed to a recent case in Catawba County, where Flock camera data was used to arrest Leroy Loper in connection with the death of Rob Doyle, who had been reported missing days before the arrest. But that success story sat awkwardly alongside two local scandals that have defined the debate in Mecklenburg County this year.
Officer Misuse Cases Cast a Shadow Over Procurement
A CMPD officer was arrested this year for allegedly misusing a license plate reader system, and the case has become central to the local conversation. The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation arrested Officer Seth Daniel Elliott on July 29 and charged him with misdemeanor illegal access of a computer after he allegedly queried Flock Safety and state CJLEADS databases to leak an undercover officer's vehicle details to a suspected drug target in Watauga County, according to WSOC TV.
A neighboring department saw a similar breach. Mooresville Police Officer Elizabeth Snowman was arrested on August 5 and charged with accessing computers after an internal audit revealed she allegedly performed 31 unauthorized Flock database searches to track her boyfriend's ex-wife and logged fraudulent case justifications, per FOX 29. The two cases, arising within days of each other, gave Charlotte-area residents concrete examples of the exact abuse that critics like Oria warned against.
Notably, CMPD does not currently own its own stationary Flock cameras, but that hasn't stopped its officers from tapping into the broader network. The department has maintained inter-agency data-sharing agreements that enabled officers to conduct more than 4,600 queries into Flock camera networks owned by other North Carolina municipalities and law enforcement agencies, according to the Cape Fear Beacon. That volume of cross-agency access is part of why auditor controls and data retention rules have become central to the contract debate, rather than an afterthought.
State Law Expands Access Even as Some Cities Pull Back
The local fight is unfolding against a backdrop of state action that cuts the opposite direction. North Carolina's budget, enacted July 7, permanently authorized automated license plate readers across state highway rights-of-way, covering roughly 78% of state roadways, and allows local police departments to access the statewide network through State Bureau of Investigation agreements, according to DeFlock Apex. Separately, state law requires agencies operating ALPR systems to adopt a written governing policy before operation, and explicitly bars using the data to enforce traffic infractions.
CMPD's use of license plate technology is not new. The department first deployed license plate reader systems in 2006 and expanded its network using federal grants tied to the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, eventually operating roughly 100 fixed and mobile cameras capable of scanning up to 3,000 plates per hour per device, per WCNC.
Even so, other North Carolina cities have moved to cut ties with Flock entirely. The Asheville City Council voted 5 to 2 on August 25 to terminate its Flock Safety contract and remove its 11 municipal license-plate cameras following extensive public opposition, according to Carolina Public Press. Hoodline has also reported on Catawba rejecting cameras, and on a nearby coastal department that fired an officer over Flock misuse.
The misuse concerns raised in Charlotte and Mooresville also reflect a pattern seen nationwide. An August 2026 investigation by The Washington Post documented that at least 50 law enforcement officers nationwide have been charged with or accused of misusing Flock and other ALPR systems, with over half the cases involving officers spying on romantic partners, ex-partners, or personal acquaintances. As Charlotte weighs its next vendor, that national record, alongside the recent local arrests, is shaping exactly the kind of scrutiny city officials now face before the October 5 bidding deadline closes.
