NEWTON — Newton City Council member Bill Powell says he trusts city police to use Flock Safety’s license-plate cameras properly. He is less sure about the company that holds the data.
In a Facebook post Thursday morning, Powell cited a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing on Flock held the day before in Washington, along with reports that the company is shrinking.
“While I have full faith in the Newton Police Department and its leadership to properly utilize this technology on their end, I assure you I am watching the corporate side very carefully,” Powell wrote.
He said the cameras “assist with the investigation of very serious crimes,” but he drew a line at data security. “If the private entity cannot securely protect the information being harvested, then all governments will be well advised to re-visit the issue,” he wrote. “My support for effective, fair and decent law enforcement remains, but it has limits.”
He ended the post with a promise: “I ran for office with a promise of direct and open communication, and that promise remains in effect. Expect more open and direct communication in the coming days.” The post did not say what form that would take.
Powell won an at-large seat in November 2025. He finished second among nine candidates for three seats, with 782 votes, according to N.C. State Board of Elections results. The city lists him as an attorney, the owner of Catawba Realty & Insurance Co., and a retired law enforcement officer and former police chief. His term runs through 2029.
Newton’s cameras
Newton police already use Flock. In February, when the city announced that Police Chief Vidal Sipe would retire, it credited him with introducing “FLOCK camera technology (automatic license plate readers).” Mark Beal, listed on the city’s website as interim chief, now leads the department.
The city’s 2025-26 budget, adopted 4-2 by the previous council in June 2025, set aside $35,000 in police spending for “LPR’s, Ballistic Helmets, Furniture.” Catawba First News reviewed the Newton council agendas and minutes posted online since January 2023. None showed a separate vote on a Flock contract, and none said how many cameras the city runs or when they went up.
Other towns in the county have gone different ways. The Town of Catawba is taking down its Flock trial cameras, and Hickory police launched a public Flock transparency portal this month.
The hearing in Washington
The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, chaired by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., held its hearing, “Always Watching: Flock’s Nationwide AI Surveillance Network,” on Wednesday. Witnesses included a Florida driver who said a Flock camera hit led to 13 days in jail, an Arizona sheriff, the ACLU and security researcher Benn Jordan. Hawley said Flock’s CEO and the heads of three rival companies declined to testify, InvestigateTV reported.
Jordan’s testimony went to the same concern Powell raised. He described security flaws he and another researcher had found in Flock cameras, and he asked Congress to require independent security testing of private surveillance vendors.
WIRED reported Sept. 18 that Flock had offered voluntary buyouts to its roughly 1,500 employees as cities drop their contracts. On Wednesday, Semafor reported that the company is weighing a sale. Flock declined to comment to Semafor.
The debate in Raleigh
North Carolina law already sets limits. Any agency using plate readers must first adopt a written policy on retention, sharing, security and audits, and it may not use the data for traffic tickets (G.S. 20-183.31). Plate data may be kept no more than 90 days without a warrant or a sworn preservation request. The data is confidential and may not be sold (G.S. 20-183.32).
This summer, lawmakers expanded the state’s own program. A provision in the 2026 budget, Senate Bill 257, which became law July 7, made permanent a State Bureau of Investigation program that puts plate readers on state highway rights of way. Legislators had removed the same language from House Bill 206 in June before adding it to the budget, which Catawba First News noted when the budget deal was reached.
“People are driving their vehicles in public,” Senate leader Phil Berger told The Daily Tar Heel. “I think we’ve always got to be a little concerned about an overuse of technology, but I believe this is an appropriate step.” The ACLU of North Carolina has warned that the data can end up shared with immigration enforcement.
Some local governments have pulled back. The Asheville City Council voted 5-2 on Aug. 25 to end its Flock contract, and Macon County, Chatham County, Hillsborough and Pittsboro have also ended or dropped theirs. Data from local cameras can travel far. Agencies ran more than 1.5 million searches of UNC Pembroke’s 10 campus cameras in three months, including more than 800 related to immigration, the Border Belt Independent reported.
The Newton City Council’s next regular meeting is Oct. 6.
Earlier coverage: Town of Catawba will take down license-plate cameras after council declines funding · Hickory PD launches Flock license-plate camera transparency portal · NC budget agreement finally reached
Sources: William Powell, Facebook post, Sept. 24, 2026; City of Newton, City Council page; N.C. State Board of Elections, Nov. 4, 2025 precinct results; City of Newton, Sipe retirement announcement, Feb. 11, 2026; City of Newton FY 2025-26 Adopted Budget and June 3, 2025 council minutes; Newton Police Department page; U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing page, “Always Watching: Flock’s Nationwide AI Surveillance Network” and Benn Jordan testimony; InvestigateTV, Sept. 23, 2026; WIRED, Sept. 18, 2026; Semafor, Sept. 23, 2026; G.S. 20-183.31 and G.S. 20-183.32; Senate Bill 257 / S.L. 2026-41, Sec. 43.26; House Bill 206 / S.L. 2026-53; ACLU of North Carolina on HB 206; The Daily Tar Heel, July 28, 2026; WLOS, Aug. 25, 2026; Carolina Public Press, Aug. 24, 2026; Border Belt Independent via The Robesonian, Aug. 20, 2026.
