- Where it stands
- under public review
- The systems
- Flock Safety. 4 sheriff's cameras on a five-year, $56,300 contract from April 2024 ($34,828.51 spent through 2026, per county records released Oct 7, 2026): 1.19 million reads a month against 563 searches, shared with 280 in-state agencies.Flock Safety
- Next
- Tuesday, October 20, 6:30 PM: Jackson County Board of Commissioners. Agenda not yet posted.
Jackson County’s four sheriff’s Flock cameras read 1.19 million plates a month against 563 searches, per records obtained by the Sylva Herald.
Timeline
Links of note
- Sylva Herald, “What the FLOCK?”: the records-request investigation
- Smoky Mountain News: the Aug 4 work session
- DeFlockILM tracker: the WCU retention violation
- County commissioners on YouTube: the Aug 4 Farmer presentation is on tape
Who decides here
Doug Farmer (sheriff, re-elected in the primary, no November opponent) · Mark Letson (commission chair through December; finished second in the March 3 Republican primary for the chair seat) · Michael Jennings and Todd Bryson (the commissioners who asked questions; Bryson did not file for re-election) · on the Nov 3 ballot: chair, Marcia Almond (D) vs David J. Rogers (R); District 1, Casey Walawender (D) vs Steven J. Sutton (R); District 2, Sean Bridgers (D) vs John Smith (R, incumbent) (where they stand; State Board of Elections candidate list).
The commission candidates on Flock (Sept 23, 2026)
Three commission seats are on the Nov 3, 2026 ballot. The Smoky Mountain News interviewed the five challengers; the one incumbent running, John Smith (R, District 2), did not respond to its requests (Smoky Mountain News, Sept 23). The paper reports bipartisan support among the five for defunding the cameras.
- Chair: Marcia Almond (D) would pay for county raises by ending the Flock contract: “Why not take that money and give it to county employees, to the sheriff’s department, and other county employees?” The paper reports Almond called the cameras a Fourth Amendment violation. David J. Rogers (R) supports removing them: “I think it infringes on the citizens’ rights right now,” adding, “I am 100% behind our sheriff and our sheriff’s department.”
- District 1: Steven J. Sutton (R), who the paper reports once supported the cameras and would now back defunding them without stronger safeguards: “I’m not a big fan of mass surveillance by government.” Casey Walawender (D): “If I had to vote on this issue right now, I would vote to defund them.”
- District 2: Sean Bridgers (D): “I’m not in favor of ongoing surveillance of American citizens,” and would vote to defund them. John Smith (R, incumbent): no response.
The numbers, from the county’s own records
Jackson County’s Sheriff (Doug Farmer) runs 4 Flock cameras on a 5-year, $55,000+ contract (2024, paid through annual budget allocations). One month of records (June 30–July 30, 2026): 1,190,043 vehicle reads · 563 searches · 4,652 hotlist hits. 99.95 percent of reads were not searched. Data is shared with 200 in-state agencies, the sheriff’s own answer when a commissioner asked him directly at the work session (one outlet had reported 280 from the same slides; the recording settles it at 200). 17 of 82 JCSO employees have access. (Sylva Herald, “What the FLOCK?” · Smoky Mountain News)
At the August 4, 2026 work session, Farmer presented (“force multiplier,” zero documented misuse); commissioners Michael Jennings (“what it could be used for in the future”) and Todd Bryson (false flags on innocent drivers) raised concerns. No vote was taken and none is scheduled; funding recurs each budget cycle.
WCU’s retention violation: 365 days against a 90-day legal cap
Western Carolina University runs three ALPR systems: Flock, Rekor (campus police), and a Genetec parking reader that retains “hits” for 365 days. NC law caps ALPR retention at 90 days (G.S. 20-183.32(a)). Per the university’s own August 2026 records response, that’s a live statutory violation being pursued by records requesters. (DeFlockILM tracker)
The sheriff’s published policies: four documents, one of them from Colorado
The Sheriff’s Office publishes a PowerDMS manual containing exactly four public documents: use of force, conduct, bonds, and “Portable Digital Recording Devices” (PP 902, dated November 3, 2025). No plate-reader, drone, real-time-center, or immigration policy is published, which means the written ALPR policy state law requires (G.S. 20-183.31) is either unpublished or does not exist; a records request settles which. The one technology policy that is public, PP 902, refers throughout to the “Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office,” cites Colorado statute (C.R.S. 24-31-902) and the “Colorado Criminal Justice Records Act,” and references a Colorado POST reporting form. It is an unedited template from another state, adopted as Jackson County’s rule for body and in-car cameras.
On ICE, Sheriff Farmer has described honoring detainers case by case: “When we arrest somebody and we have charges on them, we’ll send that information up to see if ICE wants to detain them for any reason” (Sylva Herald, date unconfirmed). Jackson has no 287(g) agreement (ICE list, Aug 21, 2026). Federal forfeiture payments to the Sheriff’s Office: $6,244 (FY2017), $18,330 (FY2020), $19,122 (FY2021), $114,785 (FY2022) (DOJ). The office also appears on Henderson County’s list of agencies with access to Henderson’s reads. What commissioners can do about any of it: What the Law Lets the County Do.
Open items
The Sylva Herald’s records requests (agency-sharing list, arrest statistics, search audits) were unanswered as of Sept 8, 2026. The Smoky Mountain News filed its own request Aug 11 for camera locations, models and costs; the sheriff’s office answered on Sept 29, seven weeks later, with the four locations (US 74, NC 107 near Cashiers, US 23 at the Macon County line, US 441 South), the model (Falcon, still images only) and six cameras bought between September 2023 and May 2026, two of them spares; it referred the costs to the county finance department (Smoky Mountain News, Sept 30). On Oct 7 the county’s records put them at $34,828.51 spent since 2024, on a five-year contract from April 2024 at $11,000 a year before tax plus a $1,300 one-time fee, $56,300 over the term, with $750 for a 2024 camera move and $9,095 for two “Falcon Flex Bundles” in 2026. The order form, as the paper read it, lists State Network and Nationwide Network access and “vehicle fingerprint” search (Smoky Mountain News, Oct 7). The order form itself is not posted; it and the Aug 4 presentation deck are the records to request. Video: county commissioners and Sylva’s town board are both on YouTube (the Aug 4 Farmer presentation is on tape). No vote is scheduled as of Sept 8, 2026; funding recurs each budget cycle. Commissioner Michael Jennings’s question from the Aug 4 work session stands: “[that slide] says it does not violate the Fourth Amendment, but to what end? When Flock has updates and starts being able to do more than it can now, or we get a sheriff that’s not as strict as you are, there’s a lot of reasons it could go wrong.”
Related: Western North Carolina and the state · Camera network misuse, documented cases · Getting Flock Out
Last verified: September 8, 2026