For the last couple of weeks, we’ve been hearing a lot about Flock cameras. WECT has done a lot of the heavy lifting in reporting out the story. More recently, we dedicated last Sunday’s column to the issue and covered protesters at the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners’ meeting.
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While Sheriff Ed McMahon did agree to deliver a written statement to WECT, he declined to answer follow-up questions, to the frustration of reporters and residents alike. But he did answer over a dozen questions sent earlier this month by Commissioner Stephanie Walker.
“I believe it is important to look at the Flock system in its proper context. The Sheriff's Office uses LPR technology as an investigative tool to help solve crimes, locate stolen vehicles and missing or endangered persons, and develop investigative leads. It is not intended to be a system for indiscriminate surveillance of our community. The Sheriff's Office is also an accredited law-enforcement agency through CALEA. Our policies and procedures are developed and maintained consistent with applicable law, accreditation requirements, and recognized law-enforcement best practices,” McMahon wrote.
We’re still following the story, and there’s more reporting to come, but we thought seeing McMahon’s responses would be interesting for some readers. They’re presented below, alongside Walker’s original questions.
Does NHCSO operate any cameras capable of continuous video or tracking a person, such as Flock’s Condor units, or only fixed plate readers?
The Sheriff's Office currently has 28 Flock license plate reader cameras that are used for vehicle identification and investigative purposes.
In addition, the Sheriff's Office has eight Flock PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) cameras located in county parks. These cameras are different from Flock's LPR/Condor technology. They are not license plate reader cameras and are not being used as a system to track individuals or follow a person's movements.
The eight PTZ cameras provide video surveillance of specific park locations and are intended to assist with public safety and investigations involving incidents occurring at those locations. We have experienced numerous incidents in our county parks, including vehicle break-ins, vandalism, assaults, and shootings. Most recently, a homicide occurred in a New Hanover County park, underscoring the importance of having appropriate security and investigative resources available in these locations.
These cameras were placed in county parks to help deter criminal activity, assist deputies and investigators when incidents occur, and help maintain safe public spaces for residents and visitors.
The cameras are location-based security cameras. They are not being used by the Sheriff's Office as a system to identify and continuously track an individual throughout the county.
NHC’s Flock cameras sit in a nationwide network where one search can reach thousands of agencies. Can you confirm whether any accessing agency is federal, and whether Federal Sharing is enabled in NHCSO’s settings? If you can name specific agencies, I’d welcome that.
Yes. The Sheriff's Office participates in Flock's law-enforcement sharing network, including sharing with federal law-enforcement agencies for legitimate law-enforcement purposes.
The following federal agencies currently have sharing agreements with the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office through the Flock system:
- Natchez Trace Parkway, National Park Service — Mississippi
- U.S. Postal Inspection Service
- Tennessee Valley Authority Police
- Wright-Patterson Air Force Base — Ohio
- Indiana Dunes National Park Police — Indiana
- Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
These sharing relationships are intended to allow law-enforcement agencies to develop legitimate investigative leads across jurisdictional boundaries. Criminal activity does not stop at county or state lines, and a vehicle associated with a criminal investigation in another jurisdiction may have traveled through New Hanover County.
It is important to distinguish between participating in the sharing network and having unrestricted access to our entire database. A qualifying search by another participating law-enforcement agency may include New Hanover County cameras, but that does not mean the agency has unrestricted access to all information maintained by the Sheriff's Office.
For example, another agency may conduct a qualifying search for a specific vehicle, and the search may include participating New Hanover County cameras. If that vehicle has never been in New Hanover County, there would be no New Hanover County match.
Our policy requires use of the system to be for a legitimate law-enforcement purpose.
The sharing agreements are intended to support that purpose and provide investigators with additional leads when vehicles or criminal activity cross jurisdictional boundaries.
NHCSO’s audit records redact every searching agency and officer’s identity. Will that continue, and will the pending records request for that data be fulfilled?
Yes, the Sheriff's Office will continue to redact information that is not a public record or that is otherwise protected from disclosure under North Carolina law.
There is a legitimate law-enforcement reason for protecting information concerning individual users and investigative searches. Releasing information identifying officers or agencies conducting specific searches can potentially jeopardize an ongoing criminal investigation, reveal investigative techniques, or compromise law-enforcement activity.
The Sheriff's Office will continue to comply with North Carolina's public-records laws and will provide records that are legally subject to disclosure. At the same time, we have an obligation to protect information that the law does not permit us to release and information that could compromise an ongoing investigation.
Does policy prohibit using Flock, including outside agency searches, for immigration enforcement? If not, would you consider it?
The New Hanover County Sheriff's Office does not enforce federal immigration laws.
Our policy requires the Flock system to be used for legitimate law-enforcement purposes and in accordance with applicable law and Sheriff's Office policy.
The Sheriff's Office controls how its personnel use the system and establishes the conditions under which our agency participates in the sharing network. We do not control how another independent law-enforcement agency uses its own access to the Flock network, nor do we direct the investigative decisions of another agency.
Our participation in the network is based on its legitimate law-enforcement purpose and our policy requirements. The system is not operated by the Sheriff's Office as an immigration-enforcement tool.
Has NHCSO’s written LPR policy, required under N.C. Gen. Stat. 20-183.31, been made public, or will it be in the transparency portal?
Yes. The Sheriff's Office's written policies are public records and are available for review online, including our policy governing the use of LPR technology.
Our policies are not something that we keep hidden from the public. Like other Sheriff's Office operating policies that are public records, our LPR policy is available for public review.
I would also remind the Board that the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office is a CALEA-accredited law-enforcement agency. We operate under established policies and procedures designed to meet applicable legal requirements, accreditation standards, and recognized law-enforcement best practices.
We are also developing the transparency portal to make information about the LPR program, including its use, safeguards, auditing, and statistics, easier for the public to access.
Does policy require every search tied to a case number, not a free-text reason?
Every search must identify a legitimate law-enforcement purpose through the appropriate purpose code.
Our policy does not currently require every search to be tied to a specific case number. However, every search must be associated with a legitimate law-enforcement purpose.
We believe the use of standardized purpose codes provides a more consistent method of identifying why the system is being accessed and allows those searches to be reviewed during the audit process.
Are search justifications reviewed for substance, not just presence, in the monthly audit?
Yes.
The monthly audit will review the substance of the searches and the stated law-enforcement purpose, not simply whether a user entered something into the system.
The purpose of the audit is to determine whether the system is being used appropriately and consistently with Sheriff's Office policy and legitimate law-enforcement purposes.
If a search appears questionable, inconsistent with policy, or otherwise raises concerns, it will be reviewed further.
Will confirmed misuse be reported to the Board and public, or only reviewed internally?
Any confirmed misuse will be addressed appropriately under Sheriff's Office policy and applicable law.
North Carolina personnel laws place limitations on what information can be released publicly regarding personnel matters. Those legal restrictions apply to law-enforcement employees just as they do to other county employees.
However, if a deputy or other employee were to misuse the system in a manner that resulted in criminal charges, that criminal matter would be a public record to the extent permitted by North Carolina law and could be shared with the Board and the public.
We will not use personnel confidentiality laws as a means of concealing criminal conduct. We will comply with the law governing what information can and cannot be released.
Will anyone outside NHCSO have standing access to audit logs?
No.
The audit will be conducted internally by my staff, and I will personally review the audit each month.
The purpose of the monthly review is to ensure that searches are consistent with legitimate law-enforcement purposes and Sheriff's Office policy.
If either my staff or I identify a discrepancy, questionable search, or potential misuse, I will immediately contact the District Attorney and request an SBI investigation when appropriate.
This provides an additional level of independent review when a potential issue is identified while maintaining appropriate control over sensitive law-enforcement information.
Public reporting shows 19 state road cameras captured over 35 million plate reads in about seven months under the SBI’s pilot. Are those part of the 28 county contract cameras, or additional? What sharing terms apply to state road cameras under the now permanent SBI program?
The Sheriff's Office was part of the initial SBI pilot program.
The cameras associated with the SBI program are separate from the Sheriff's Office's 28 local Flock camera locations. Our local cameras are permitted through the North Carolina Department of Transportation for placement on state-maintained roadways.
The sharing principle is the same: information is shared for legitimate law-enforcement purposes with another law-enforcement agency.
The statewide SBI program is administered by the State Bureau of Investigation, and the Sheriff's Office will continue to comply with the applicable requirements governing our participation in that program.
Is 28 cameras still accurate? Will future increases in cameras, retention, or sharing return to the Board first?
Yes. The Sheriff's Office currently has 28 Flock camera locations.
There is no immediate plan to increase the number of camera locations.
In fact, we have recently taken a step to reduce the amount of information retained by the system by reducing our LPR data retention period from 90 days to 30 days.
We will continue to share our data with participating law-enforcement agencies for legitimate law-enforcement purposes. If there are significant future changes to the program, including substantial expansion of the number of camera locations or material changes to retention or sharing, I believe those changes should be appropriately communicated to county leadership and the Board.
Is two-factor authentication required for all personnel with system access?
Yes.
Two-factor authentication is required for personnel with access to the Flock system. Individual user accounts are used to identify system users, and credentials are not to be shared.
Do we know of any misuse by NHCSO personnel been identified to date?
No.
At this time, we are not aware of any misuse of the Flock system by Sheriff's Office personnel.
That does not mean we assume misuse is impossible. It is one of the reasons we are strengthening our oversight by conducting a monthly audit and having me personally review those audits.
If we identify questionable activity, it will be investigated and addressed appropriately.
Has NHCSO Flock data ever been sold or shared commercially? Does NHCSO buy or subscribe to third-party commercial plate data outside its own contract?
No.
The Sheriff's Office has never sold or commercially shared our Flock data, and we will not do so.
Our Flock data is used for legitimate law-enforcement purposes. We do not buy or subscribe to third-party commercial license-plate data outside of our Flock contract.
I appreciate Commissioner Walker raising these questions. I believe these are important issues for the Board and the public to understand.
The Sheriff's Office's position has been consistent: technology such as LPRs can be an extremely valuable investigative tool, but it must be used responsibly, lawfully, and with appropriate safeguards.
We are taking additional steps to strengthen those safeguards, including reducing our retention period from 90 days to 30 days, conducting monthly audits, requiring two-factor authentication, maintaining individual user accountability, and continuing to develop our public transparency portal.
As a CALEA-accredited law-enforcement agency, we take our policies, accountability, and adherence to recognized law-enforcement best practices seriously. Our goal is to use technology that helps us protect the community and solve crimes while maintaining the public's trust.
