From Staff Reports

HENDERSONVILLE, N.C.— Henderson County residents are pushing back against the proliferation of Flock Safety automated license plate reading cameras, sparking a local petition and a growing debate over mass surveillance, data privacy, and government transparency. 

Following reportedly are the catalyst and local petition:

• The uprising: Edneyville resident Austin Rhodes launched an online change.org petition and formed the “DeFlock Henderson County” group to demand that county commissioners defund and remove the surveillance technology. 

(Rhodes, who is a beekeeper, berry farmer and a cattleman, owns and runs Rhodes Berry Farm in Edneyville. He grows — commercially — blackberries and raspberries, he texted the Hendersonville Daily Planet in answer to the newspaper’s questions on Aug. 13. He added that he manages “30 to 60 (bee) hives, depending on the year.” As for his herd of cattle, Rhodes has “around 50 (head)... They’re black Angus mixes.”) 

• The numbers: The petition quickly gathered close to 900 signatures from a bipartisan coalition of residents.

• The scale: According to tracking data, roughly 39 Flock cameras are deployed across Henderson County, used or funded by the Sheriff’s Office as well as local police departments in Hendersonville, Fletcher and Laurel Park. 

Following are core resident concerns:

• Innocent tracking: Critics argue that while the Sheriff’s Office cites dozens of arrests and stolen vehicle recoveries, 99.99 percent of the scanned data belongs to law-abiding citizens going about daily activities, such as work, school or church. 

• Fear of misuse: Residents point to high-profile incidents — such as a Charlotte police officer arrested for unlawfully misusing the database — as proof that internal self-regulation and audits cannot completely prevent unlawful tracking or potential data breaches.

• Expansion anxieties: Locals worry that the footprint of these private, cloud-connected corporation cameras will creep indefinitely into every neighborhood and public corner. 

Following is the law enforcement and official stance:

• Crime-fighting tool: Local police and sheriff officials maintain that the automated plate readers are essential, non-continuous video tools that provide vital data to track stolen vehicles and locate missing persons.