footnote4a

Mass surveillance, government contracts, and other bedtime reading.

Data update: Buncombe County NC SO (Apr 2026)

~1M network audit records from the Buncombe County NC SO, covering March–April 2026.

by HaveIBeenFlocked Team
3 min read
logs
north-carolina

Network audit records from the Buncombe County NC SO were added, covering March 7 through April 7, 2026. Buncombe County (pop. ~270,000) is in the mountains of western North Carolina and includes the city of Asheville. No organization audit was included in this release — only the network audit showing which outside agencies searched through Buncombe County’s Flock camera network.

#Network audit

  • Type: Network audit
  • Timespan: Mar 7, 2026 – Apr 7, 2026 (~1 month)
  • Earliest record: Mar 7, 2026, 1:00 PM UTC
  • Latest record: Apr 7, 2026, 12:59 PM UTC
  • Records: 1,048,575
  • Organizations: 3,499

#Excel row limit

The record count — exactly 1,048,575 — is the maximum number of data rows an Excel spreadsheet can hold. Agency administrators often convert to Excel when they’re editing the requested Flock-exported CSV files.

The true number of searches run through Buncombe County’s cameras during this period is almost certainly higher than what appears in the partial log.

#Search types

TypeCount%
lookup914,28387.2%
search129,55912.4%
apiV12,3470.2%
convoy1,9790.2%
searchSummary171<0.01%
multiGeo158<0.01%
freeform72<0.01%
visual6<0.01%

#Top searchers

OrganizationSearches
Houston TX PD44,818
Dallas TX PD37,209
Gwinnett County GA PD15,936
Memphis TN PD11,756
Columbus OH PD10,847
Hillsborough County FL SO10,055
Michigan State Police8,427
Atlanta GA PD8,208
Pinellas County FL SO8,008
Texas Department of Public Safety7,786

Every one of the top ten searchers is an out-of-state agency. Houston TX PD alone accounts for 4.3% of all searches through Buncombe County’s cameras — from over 1,000 miles away.

#North Carolina agencies

North Carolina agencies account for 57,982 searches (5.5% of the total) across 188 NC organizations. The top NC searchers:

OrganizationSearches
Charlotte Mecklenburg NC PD3,352
Edgecombe County NC SO2,377
New Hanover County NC SO2,099
Raleigh NC PD1,867
Nash County NC SO1,790
Cleveland County NC SO1,669
Waynesville NC PD1,522
Gastonia NC PD1,469
Haywood County NC SO1,391
Alexander County NC SO1,373

Local Buncombe-area agencies — Buncombe County SO (1,119), Asheville PD (527), and UNC Asheville PD (3) — combined for just 1,649 searches, or 0.16% of the total. The vast majority of queries against these cameras come from agencies with no geographic connection to the area.

#Redaction

All license plates in the network audit are either redacted (“***”) or blank. All officer/user names are redacted. Case numbers and vehicle filter descriptions are almost entirely empty or redacted. This level of redaction is typical for network audits obtained through public records requests.