I requested App State's Flock (license-plate camera) records. Three cameras, 1.5 million searches in one quarter, 84% from outside NC — and they won't disclose the camera count their own contract lists.
Disclosure up front: I'm an attorney and I run DeFlockILM, a nonpartisan group that files public-records requests about automated license-plate-reader (ALPR) cameras in North Carolina. I filed one with Appalachian State, and the results are a Boone/Watauga story, so I wanted to put the actual records in front of this community rather than just a hot take. I am also a graduate of Appalachian and lived there nine years. I love Boone!
The short version: App State PD operates three Flock license-plate cameras (about a $16k contract). I asked for the standard records, including the Flock "network audit." For March–May 2026, that audit shows those three cameras were searched 1,511,722 times by 3,487 different agencies, and ~84% of the searches came from outside North Carolina.
Important caveat, because the number is easy to misread: App State shares its cameras into Flock's nationwide network. When any agency runs a search, that single query sweeps thousands of networks at once, and Flock logs each as a "search" that reached App State's cameras. So when the top searcher is Houston, TX PD at 177,461, that's not 177k people deliberately looking up Boone — it's a measure of how wide-open the shared network is. A search from almost anywhere automatically reaches here.
The local hook: Charlotte-Mecklenburg PD searched App State's cameras 13,392 times in that window. CMPD is the department whose officer was recently charged for running a Watauga County Sheriff's undercover vehicle plate through Flock.
The part I find hardest to defend: App State refused to tell me how many cameras it runs, citing a state "sensitive security information" exemption — even though the contract it produced lists the count (three) on the first page. Meanwhile, Boone PD publishes its own camera count and network-sharing settings on a public Flock portal. Same town, opposite answer.
Full write-up with the records (raw files mirrored on the Internet Archive): https://deflockilm.org/appalachian-state-flock-alpr-audit/
Genuinely curious what students, faculty, and locals think — both about a public campus feeding a nationwide search network, and about the records/transparency question specifically. Happy to answer questions.
Final Note - I read the rules and believe this post is fully allowed but if not, mods please delete and my apologies.