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The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office has halted its Flock camera program and fired one of its detectives after an audit revealed she had used the camera system to track an individual, the sheriff said Friday morning.
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Sheriff Kevin White said a recent audit of the county’s use of its Flock system showed Detective Janet Leonard used the cameras to “track the every movement of a single private citizen.” She has been terminated, effective immediately, and the Flock program has been indefinitely suspended.
“This is unacceptable, unconstitutional, and a complete violation of privacy by someone whose entire career should have been dedicated to protecting the public,” White wrote on Facebook on Friday morning.
According to White, Franklin County has utilized Flock cameras for “the better part of the last decade” — a security system he credited as “an invaluable tool in solving crimes, catching criminals, and most importantly, locating missing people, particularly children.”
But those benefits are also coupled with unsafe capabilities, he said.
“While Flock is indeed powerful and at times useful, it also has the ability to be extremely dangerous when weaponized by those with ulterior motives,” White said.
Flock cameras have become a polarizing piece of technology both in North Carolina and across the U.S. in the past year.
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Advocates have applauded the technology for its eagle-eye approach to stopping crime. But critics have flooded town council meetings decrying the technology, towns have terminated their contracts with Flock Safety and cameras have been found cut down and vandalized — including multiple in Wake Forest this summer.
And concerns have mounted across the country about local officials misusing their access to the camera systems, which scan license plates and watch over local streets. In Mooresville last month, one police officer was arrested and at least 10 others are under investigation for using the Flock system for purposes “other than official law enforcement duties.”
White said Franklin County officials will continue to investigate the findings of the audit on the Flock cameras, in collaboration with the Franklin district attorney. Anyone who has ever used the Flock system for “wrongdoing” will face “immediate and significant consequences,” White said.
“Just because a tool can be useful doesn’t mean it can’t be dangerous. I will stop at nothing to keep our community safe and excellent beyond measure, but I will never allow it to come at the cost of your privacy and constitutional rights,” he wrote. “Citizens deserve transparency, and a government they can depend on to keep them safe, not a government that can be weaponized against them.”
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This story was originally published September 25, 2026 at 10:30 AM.