WNC Surveillance Watch.

Watauga County

Where it stands
kept the cameras, cut sharing 96% after pulling the log
The systems
  • Flock Safety. 3 Boone plate readers and 3 App State campus cameras. After the log showed 1.5 million searches of the campus cameras in three months, 85% from out of state, sharing was cut from more than 1,000 agencies to 41.Flock Safety

Boone and Appalachian State both cut their cameras’ network sharing in 2026 after pulling the search logs.

Timeline

what was builtwhat communities changedahead, still undecidedwhat was reported
2022Built
Boone: App State police join Flock's national plate-reader network App State's police department joins Flock's national network, "to increase the network of resources available to law enforcement agencies" per the university.
May 13, 2026Changed
Boone council pauses Flock expansion and orders a public transparency portal Boone Town Council, on a resolution brought by Mayor Dalton George after constituent contacts, pauses Flock expansion and orders a public transparency portal: camera locations, usage policies, monthly query data. (Watauga Democrat)
Early August 2026Changed
Boone: App State cuts its Flock cameras from the national network App State cuts its cameras' national network access after the numbers come back: searched roughly 1.5 million times in three months, overwhelmingly by out-of-state agencies. Access restricted to the SBI and Watauga County agencies.
Aug 20, 2026Changed
Boone police cut Flock data sharing from over 1,000 agencies to 41 Boone PD's sharing list, over 1,000 agencies before the May resolution, is down to 41. (Watauga Democrat, Aug 26)

What the audit showed that the portal didn’t

The most important detail in the Democrat’s reporting: before the cut, the public transparency portals showed only internal audits, so a resident checking the portal would never have seen the out-of-state search volume. The portals did not show the out-of-state volume. Buncombe’s audit log was likewise obtained by records request rather than from a portal.

Said out loud

Boone Police Chief Daniel Duckworth, to the Democrat in August: “The technology was rolled out quickly, and law-enforcement agencies did not do a great job from the beginning developing comprehensive policies and procedures before allowing broad access to the system.” And: “I am very open to having a conversation with the public about what responsible use of this technology should look like.”

Who decides here

Boone Town Council (Mayor Dalton George; Todd Carter, Virginia Roseman, Adrian Tait, Anne Pruitt, Anitra Ball) meets second Wednesdays 9 AM and fourth Wednesdays 5 PM. Watauga County commissioners (Chair Braxton Eggers; Todd Castle, Emily Greene, Tim Hodges, Ronnie Marsh) meet first and third Tuesdays, 5:30 PM; the sheriff’s office runs four plate readers of its own, and no commissioner has made a public statement about them. App State’s trustees have said nothing on the record about the university cameras.

What the log changed

Boone did not remove its cameras. It paused growth on May 13, 2026, ordered a transparency portal, and cut its sharing list from more than 1,000 agencies to 41 by Aug 20, 2026, after the search log showed about 1.5 million searches in three months, most from out of state. It is the one WNC jurisdiction so far to have pulled and acted on its own log.

Related: Western North Carolina and the state · What the Law Lets the County Do · Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office Fusus access log, 2024 to 2026 · Communities that ended or limited camera contracts

Last verified: September 8, 2026