WNC Surveillance Watch.

McDowell County

Where it stands
no public review found
The systems
  • Flock Safety. 12 or more cameras per EFF's Atlas of Surveillance, 8 of them the sheriff's office's and the rest Marion PD's; no vote found and no published paperwork.Flock Safety

McDowell County’s sheriff’s office runs at least 12 Flock cameras; no vote, contract value, or policy is public.

Timeline

what was builtwhat communities changedahead, still undecidedwhat was reported
By September 2025Built
Records show at least 12 Flock cameras in McDowell County, no vote on record Per public records compiled by EFF's Atlas of Surveillance, the Sheriff's Office runs 8 Flock cameras and Marion PD runs 4, with two more mapped in Old Fort. No commission vote, no council vote, no news story precedes or follows. (Getting Flock Out)
August 10, 2026
McDowell County swears in a new sheriff Ricky "Buck" Buchanan retires August 1; Nathan Mace is sworn in as McDowell's 26th sheriff, with Paul Alkire as chief deputy (Fox Carolina). Mace won the March Republican primary and appears to have no November opponent. He inherits the cameras and has said nothing public about them.

Who decides here

Nathan Mace (sheriff since Aug 10, 2026, unopposed). No commissioner, Marion official, or chief has been quoted on the cameras.

What is public

Beyond the Atlas entry, there is nothing: no commission vote, no council vote, no news story, no stated position from the sheriff who installed them (Ricky Buchanan, retired August 2026) or the one who inherited them (Nathan Mace), no contract value, no local coverage of any kind; the county’s own paper has run only wire stories about Flock elsewhere. No tracker lists McDowell; no opposition exists because nobody knows.

A single records request (contract, cost, policies, audit logs; DeFlockILM’s NC template works) would produce the county’s first-ever public documentation of its own surveillance network, and a single resident asking at public comment would be the first ever to do so.

What the neighbors’ records show: McDowell County SO, Marion PD, and Old Fort PD all appear on Henderson County’s published list of agencies granted access to Henderson’s plate reads (Aug 22, 2026), so the county’s deputies have access to a regional pool whatever their own paperwork says. McDowell has no 287(g) agreement with ICE (ICE list, Aug 21, 2026). Federal forfeiture payments to the Sheriff’s Office: $3,803 (FY2017), $39,504 (FY2020), $2,900 (FY2021), $86,937 (FY2022) (DOJ). The new sheriff’s first budget is the first chance to ask: What the Law Lets the County Do.

Video: commissioners post to YouTube; Marion City Council’s channel needs manual verification.

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

Last verified: September 8, 2026