Documented Incident
Houston police searched UNC Charlotte's Flock camera network over 183,000 times in three months
First reported: October 16, 2026 · 13 sources
Records obtained from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte show the Houston Police Department ran searches that included the university's Flock ALPR network more than 183,000 times between March and May 2026, far more than any North Carolina agency. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police ranked 30th in searches of the network, while UNC Charlotte's own police department ranked 1,491st with 229 searches. Houston police told WBTV its ALPR use is regularly reviewed and that the department has identified usage it is investigating further. No misuse of the UNC Charlotte network has been alleged.
The figures illustrate how a single campus camera network can be queried at scale by agencies thousands of miles away operating under different state rules, raising questions about who controls data a local institution collects. Two other North Carolina universities have already turned off national sharing, a decision other campuses and municipalities may face.
Key facts
- Houston PD searches including the UNC Charlotte network totaled more than 183,000 from March through May 2026; records indicate Houston officers often queried over 6,000 networks at once.
- UNC Charlotte says it participates in a shared network of roughly 1,600 agencies and does not share access with HOAs or private businesses; other searchers included CSX railroad police and a Toledo, Ohio parks department.
- Appalachian State University and, last week, UNC Chapel Hill disabled national sharing of their Flock networks.
- Wilmington attorney Mark Williams, who opposes ALPR use, said North Carolina bars selling the data but argues other states such as Texas lack comparable guardrails.
- North Carolina does not require reporting of Flock misuse; prior cases at Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Mooresville police surfaced through arrests or voluntary disclosure.
Timeline
- October 16, 2026Out-of-state police agency searched a university’s Flock camera network more than 183K times in 3 months
- October 16, 2026Why are Houston police the top searchers of the University of North Carolina's Flock network?
- October 16, 2026Out-of-state police agency searched a university’s Flock camera network more than 183K times in 3 months
Sources
This summary was written from the published reporting below and links to it; BlockFlockNow does not reproduce article text.
- Out-of-state police agency searched a university’s Flock camera network more than 183K times in 3 months (Kctv5 News, October 16, 2026)
- Out - of - state police agency searched a university Flock camera network more than 183K times in 3 months (foxcarolina.com, October 17, 2026)
- Out-of-state police agency searched a university’s Flock camera network more than 183K times in 3 months (Https://www.29news.com, October 16, 2026)
- Out-of-state police agency searched a university’s Flock camera network more than 183K times in 3 months (Https://www.kotatv.com, October 16, 2026)
- Out-of-state police agency searched a university’s Flock camera network more than 183K times in 3 months (Https://www.kxii.com, October 16, 2026)
- Out-of-state police agency searched a university’s Flock camera network more than 183K times in 3 months (WLFI, October 16, 2026)
- Out-of-state police agency searched a university’s Flock camera network more than 183K times in 3 months (Wfsb Channel 3, October 16, 2026)
- Out-of-state police agency searched a university’s Flock camera network more than 183K times in 3 months (Https://www.newschannel10.com, October 16, 2026)
- Why are Houston police the top searchers of the University of North Carolina's Flock network? (Click2Houston, October 16, 2026)
- Out - of - state police agency searched a university Flock camera network more than 183K times in 3 months (kbtx.com, October 18, 2026)
- Houston police searched Flock cameras in North Carolina. But why? (Chron, October 16, 2026)
- Out-of-state police agency searched a university’s Flock camera network more than 183K times in 3 months (Upper Michigan's Source, October 16, 2026)
- Out-of-state police agency searched a university’s Flock camera network more than 183K times in 3 months (KBTX News 3, October 16, 2026)
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About this record
BlockFlockNow documents reported incidents involving Flock Safety cameras and automated license plate readers: council votes, contract decisions, misuse by authorized users, lawsuits, audits, and community response. Every record is reviewed by a person before publication. New to the topic? Start with What is Flock?, find meetings near you, or learn how to request your town's camera records.
Updated October 21, 2026. Corrections: blockflock@bytebunny.io. See all documented incidents or search the full article archive.