A Wrightsville Beach police officer is no longer employed by the town after an internal audit uncovered misuse of the department's Flock Safety license plate reader system. Town officials say they have notified the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and the local district attorney's office, asking them to determine whether the officer violated policy governing use of the Flock database.
According to Port City Daily, town leadership requested the audit that ultimately found a discrepancy in the officer's use of the system, and Wrightsville Beach relieved her of her duties following an internal investigation. Wrightsville Beach began using Flock and its license plate reader technology in March 2026. Police Chief Jason Bishop said the department is committed to protecting others and exemplifying public service, guided by honor, integrity, courage, and service, according to the outlet's report.
The town says its Flock cameras — which capture license plate information along with vehicle descriptors such as make and model — have helped recover stolen goods, resolve a missing-person case, and identify suspects in hit-and-run incidents. Wrightsville Beach's official ALPR policy explicitly restricts the technology from capturing images of individuals, using facial recognition software, or tracking cellular devices and immigration status, per the Town of Wrightsville Beach. Residents can review the town's camera activity and data use through a public transparency portal.
A Regional Wave of Surveillance Scrutiny
The termination landed on the same day the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners voted to cancel its own countywide Flock Safety contract, citing discomfort with unmonitored cloud database access and potential abuse. Commissioners' vote came amid growing public protests over surveillance power, as reported by Port City Daily.
State investigators were separately called into neighboring Brunswick County after a sheriff's deputy resigned in early September over potential misuse of automated surveillance tools, according to the same outlet. Brunswick County Sheriff Brian Chism confirmed the resignation and the subsequent state referral just days before Wrightsville Beach disclosed its own officer's termination.
The Cape Fear region's reckoning with Flock technology follows a case in which the SBI criminally charged a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officer in July with misdemeanor computer trespass under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-454(b), for allegedly running unauthorized license plate searches through Flock Safety and CJLEADS to assist a drug suspect, according to DeFlockILM. Under that statute, accessing a public computer or law enforcement database without authorization is a Class 1 misdemeanor, while state ALPR rules require only annual internal agency audits rather than mandatory public reporting of misuse.
Audits Reveal Gaps Across Cape Fear Agencies
Audit records obtained by regional transparency researchers found that Cape Fear law enforcement agencies tapped into Flock Safety networks nearly 3 million times between January 2025 and June 2026, with roughly 90 percent of those queries lacking an associated case number. That finding, reported by Port City Daily, has fueled concerns among residents and advocacy groups about redacted search logs and a lack of systematic case logging.
In response to mounting pressure, New Hanover County Sheriff Ed McMahon revised his department's Flock guidelines in August, cutting raw license plate data retention from 90 days to 30 days and mandating monthly internal review audits overseen directly by the sheriff, according to WHQR. The changes followed public protests at county board meetings demanding tighter oversight of the surveillance systems.
North Carolina's oversight patchwork extends beyond the Cape Fear region. An internal audit conducted by the Raleigh Police Department in April found that although 416 officers held active access to the department's Flock network, more than half — 239 officers — had never logged into the system during the evaluation period, as previously reported by Hoodline. Raleigh policy requires supervisor approval in advance for non-intelligence officers seeking access to automated license plate data.
Vendor Responds to Nationwide Scrutiny
The wave of contract cancellations and misconduct investigations is not confined to North Carolina. Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley announced nationwide security upgrades in August, including mandatory search reason codes and automated account lockouts for suspicious query patterns, following a surge of municipal contract terminations tied to officer database misuse in multiple states.
Massachusetts communities including East Bridgewater and Groton pulled their Flock contracts this summer after officer stalking and database misuse incidents came to light, while Surprise, Arizona, suspended its own license plate camera program following a routine audit that uncovered policy violations. Wrightsville Beach's leadership has not detailed further disciplinary or legal proceedings against the terminated officer beyond the referral to the SBI and the district attorney's office.
