09/25/2026
📷 Catawba Sheriff Opens Flock Camera Portal to the Public. CVNW Went Through All of It.
16 cameras, 420,198 vehicles in 30 days and about 200 agencies with access
NEWTON, N.C. (09/24/2026 9:30 AM) — The Catawba County Sheriff's Office launched a public portal Thursday showing how it uses its Flock license plate cameras.
In its announcement, the office said the cameras have helped deputies find wanted and missing people, recover stolen vehicles and develop leads in serious cases. It said the cameras have also helped trace suspects' movements weeks before crimes were reported.
The office called the cameras one tool used alongside interviews, physical evidence and search warrants.
The portal is nearly identical to the one Hickory police launched last week, which CVNW covered Sept. 17.
Here's what the portal shows, and what it leaves out.
WHAT THE PORTAL SHOWS
The office's 16 cameras recorded 420,198 different vehicles in the past 30 days. Deputies ran 284 search sessions in that time.
The announcement lists finding vehicles tied to people in crisis as the first use of the cameras. The portal lists drug cases as the top reason for searches, followed by wanted persons, theft, stolen vehicles and s*x offenses.
The cameras sent 351 alerts. More than half, 186, flagged vehicles tied to protection orders. A separate box lists 2,849 "hotlist hits" for the same period and does not explain the difference.
Camera data is kept 30 days, shorter than the 90 days state law allows.
The office shares its camera data with about 200 agencies, all in North Carolina, from Cherokee County to the Outer Banks.
The portal says the cameras read plates and vehicles, not people, faces, gender or race. A 404 Media and WIRED investigation published last week, based on files hackers copied from a Flock camera, found the camera runs software built to detect people. Reporters found no sign facial recognition was turned on.
Its only local success story does not name the victim, but it matches the 2025 killing of 75-year-old Vietnam veteran David Mize, whose body was found in the trunk of his car in Caldwell County.
The portal says a bank employee's concern about an elderly customer's unusual inactivity started that case, and that Flock cameras helped identify two suspects, find the car and recover the body. Two people pleaded guilty in June to second-degree murder and armed robbery in his death, Tribune News Service reported.
One of the sheriff's office's cameras stands where Swinging Bridge Road, the road Mize lived on, meets Highway 16. The portal does not say which cameras were used in the case.
The portal's "In the North Carolina News" section features five other cases, from Lincolnton, Rockingham, Gastonia, Huntersville and Burlington. None are Catawba County cases.
The last section, labeled "Provided by Flock Safety," answers what it calls myths about the cameras. Some answers are written to agencies, not the public. One reads: "Other agencies who you share footage with have been responding to FOIA requests and sharing this search data."
WHAT THE PORTAL LEAVES OUT
Under state law, plate data from these cameras is confidential and not a public record. That makes the portal the public's main window into the system, and each agency decides what goes on it.
The portal lists 16 cameras but not where any of them are.
It says every use of the system requires a stated reason, and those records are kept indefinitely. The records themselves are not posted. Some agencies' portals include them.
It lists who can reach Catawba County's camera data but not how often those agencies searched it. It also does not say whose cameras Catawba County deputies can search.
It does not say how many of the 351 alerts led to an arrest or a recovered vehicle, or how many were wrong.
State law requires the office's camera policy to include audits of how the system is used, at least once a year, reported to the sheriff. The portal shows no audit results. It says misuse will lead to discipline but does not say whether any has been found.
One agency on the sharing list, Mooresville police, fired and charged an officer in August accused of using Flock data to track another person's vehicle.
The portal shows a few summary lines of the office's policies, not the full written policy state law requires.
State law allows plate data to be shared with federal law enforcement on written request. The portal does not say whether that has happened.
It does not say what the county pays for the cameras.
What would you want to see on this portal that isn't there?
