WNC Surveillance Watch.

Haywood County

Where it stands
commissioners voted to keep them
The systems
  • Flock Safety. About 8 cameras since 2024. Commissioners decided in July 2026 to keep them; no formal vote on the original deployment is on the record.Flock Safety
Next
  • Monday, October 19, 5:30 PM: Haywood County Board of Commissioners. Agenda not yet posted.

Haywood County’s sheriff’s office has run about 8 Flock cameras since 2024; commissioners said in July 2026 they would keep them. No vote on the cameras is on the record.

Timeline

what was builtwhat communities changedahead, still undecidedwhat was reported
2024Built
Haywood sheriff puts 8 to 10 Flock cameras into use, no vote The Sheriff's Office puts ~8–10 Flock cameras into use; like Madison County, they enter through the sheriff's operations with no formal deployment vote. Getting Flock Out
FY26 budgetBuilt
Maggie Valley police buy two plate readers with drug-seizure money $7,300 the first year, $6,000/year after, paid from the drug-seizure account, with access to state and national LPR databases. A budget-retreat consensus, not a public-hearing item (The Mountaineer).
March 3, 2026
Haywood sheriff loses the Republican primary Republican challenger Mark Mease defeats incumbent Sheriff Bill Wilke (about 58%); Mease faces Democrat Tyler Howell, a Waynesville police officer, on November 3 (Ballotpedia). No public position on the cameras found for either as of Sept 8, 2026.
July 2026Built
Haywood commission chair says the county will keep its Flock cameras A week after Macon County's removal, Commission Chairman Kevin Ensley tells a reporter the county will keep them, citing falling overdose deaths and "no complaints"; a chairman's statement, not a vote (WLOS, July 21, 2026). Communities that ended or limited camera contracts

The July 2026 decision

A week after Macon County removed its cameras, Haywood announced it would keep its ~8–10 Flock cameras (in use since 2024, run by the Sheriff’s Office). Commission Chairman Kevin Ensley’s stated reason: overdose deaths fell “in the thirties… last year we only had ten,” and the county has received “no complaints.” (WLOS, July 21, 2026)

Two facts about that decision:

  1. No formal vote has ever been taken: not on the original deployment, not on the July decision to keep them. Like Madison County, the cameras entered through the sheriff’s operations, and the “decision” to keep them was a chairman’s statement to a reporter.
  2. The overdose figures: overdose deaths fell statewide and nationally in 2024 and 2025. No analysis connecting Haywood’s cameras to its numbers has been published.

Contract value, term, and renewal date: not public; no press coverage or tracker has them. A records request would.

The towns

  • Waynesville PD: verified Flock cameras (count unpublished); also operates a drone. Town council streams on YouTube (@TownofWaynesville), 2nd & 4th Tuesdays.
  • Maggie Valley PD: bought two plate readers in the FY26 budget: $7,300 the first year, $6,000/year after, paid from the drug-seizure account, with network access to state and national LPR databases. A budget-retreat consensus, not a public-hearing item. (The Mountaineer)
  • Canton: one mapped camera, vendor unconfirmed; the Board of Aldermen publishes no meeting video at all: minutes only.

Who decides here

Bill Wilke (sheriff through December) · Mark Mease (R) vs Tyler Howell (D) for sheriff · Kevin Ensley (commission chair). No chief of Waynesville, Canton, or Maggie Valley has been quoted on the cameras.

The ballot, and the paper trail

Whoever wins in November inherits the cameras: Mark Mease (R) vs Tyler Howell (D) for sheriff, and three commission seats (six Republicans contested the primary; the winners face two Democrats and an unaffiliated candidate) (Ballotpedia). No candidate statement on Flock, plate readers, or ICE has been found as of Sept 8, 2026. Haywood has no 287(g) agreement with ICE (ICE list, Aug 21, 2026) and no Flock transparency portal; the Sheriff’s Office does appear as a recipient on Henderson County’s 2,048-agency sharing list, so Haywood deputies can search a neighbor’s reads even without publishing their own. Federal forfeiture payments to the Sheriff’s Office: $30,766 (FY2021) and $102,813 (FY2022) (DOJ). What the county can and cannot do about a sheriff’s cameras: What the Law Lets the County Do.

Open items

County commission video: Haywood County, NC Government on YouTube, captioned, with agendas. No renewal or budget decision is scheduled as of Sept 8, 2026; the next is the FY28 budget cycle in spring 2027. The cameras have never received a vote.

Related: Western North Carolina and the state · Getting Flock Out

Last verified: September 8, 2026