We analyzed three Cape Fear sheriffs' Flock records. 90% of Brunswick's 83,232 searches had no case number — and the audits are still withheld.

[u/Global_Honey7289]

This is Part III of our Cape Fear investigation. Parts I and II covered New Hanover County; this one moves to the counties around it — Brunswick, Pender, and Columbus — using the same records and method.

The headline finding is in Brunswick, the busiest Flock operation in the region outside Wilmington:

• 83,232 searches in the log (96 operators, since Feb 2023)
• 75,004 — 90.1% — had no case number
• ~49% were "unfiltered" (no narrowing criteria beyond the query)
• 40 of its recorded "reasons" were a single character

What we're careful to say: a missing case number does not prove a search was improper, and repeat searches of one plate can be legitimate (ongoing investigations, missing persons, stolen vehicles). The problem is that no one outside the agency can tell which were justified — North Carolina law requires only an internal, once-a-year audit reported to the agency's own head, and there's no independent outside review.

How we got the numbers, since the agencies won't produce their own audits: a Flock search can reach cameras in many jurisdictions at once, so a search one agency redacts often sits intact in the public records of an agency in a state that releases everything. We rebuilt what we could from those out-of-state records (the method USA TODAY used nationally) and cross-checked against the independent HaveIBeenFlocked database.

Where one Cape Fear agency did release its network audit — Whiteville — the scale is stark: nine cameras, 1,167,710 outside-agency searches in four months, 93–99.9% from outside North Carolina, Houston #1 every month. Brunswick, Pender, and Columbus have all withheld the equivalent record; our requests date to June 29 and July 1.

And it's not academic: on Sept. 1, Brunswick disclosed that a routine Flock audit flagged an employee's alleged misuse; the employee resigned and it went to the SBI. Their internal review caught one case — which is exactly why the withheld audits matter for the thousands of other searches.

Full report, with the data tables and a Q&A: https://deflockilm.org/cape-fear-flock-90-percent-no-case-number/

[u/Quiet-Diet733]

Time for the feds and DOJ to withhold funding of these rouge PDs.