Raleigh police audit lists 416 active Flock users, leaving access questions

A Raleigh Police Department audit dated August 5, 2026, listed 416 people as active users of the Flock automated license-plate reader system. Only about half of those users logged in during the review period, according to WRAL.

The figure represents more than half of Raleigh’s department of more than 700 sworn officers. It also leaves public questions about who has access, what different users can search and how quickly inactive accounts are disabled.

What the August audit shows

The 416-user figure is an audit finding dated August 5, not a permanent current total. In this context, “active” describes how an account was classified in the system; it does not establish that every listed user logged in or conducted a search.

During the audit period, only about half of the listed users logged into Flock. WRAL also reported that an April 2026 audit listed 417 active users, including 239 who did not log in during that evaluation period. That audit said 148 had not logged into Flock at all in 2026.

Those figures matter because Flock systems collect automated license-plate data that law enforcement can use in investigations. The broader the account list, and the less clearly access is divided by job role, the harder it is for residents to evaluate whether permissions match investigative need.

Former employees appeared in earlier records

Internal audits from April and May identified former employees among people listed as active Flock users, according to WRAL Investigates. A follow-up audit in July no longer contained that language.

Raleigh police told WRAL that the former employees were still classified as having active Flock registrations but could not access the database because they no longer had active city-issued email accounts or phone numbers needed for two-factor authentication. The department said it had kept the accounts in the system in case those employees returned to work for Raleigh police.

After the audit findings, the department said it ended that practice and removed the former employees from the system. The available reporting does not say that the former employees accessed Flock data.

Key access questions remain unanswered

Raleigh police has not publicly provided a detailed breakdown of the 416 active users by role or assignment. That information would show how many accounts belong to patrol officers, detectives, supervisors, intelligence personnel, civilian analysts, administrators or other employees.

It also remains unclear how many users can conduct historical searches of vehicle and license-plate data, whether access is assigned automatically based on job duties, and what investigative need an employee must demonstrate before receiving access. The available reporting does not establish that every active user can conduct historical searches.

Another unresolved issue is the department’s inactivity threshold. The audits documented users who had not logged in during the review period or earlier in the year, but the public reporting does not establish when an unused account is reviewed or disabled.

How Raleigh says the system is used

Raleigh’s automated-license-plate-reader policy requires advance supervisor approval for employees outside the Raleigh Intelligence Center, according to WRAL’s review of the department policy. Raleigh police also told WRAL that the technology is used to support legitimate criminal investigations and public-safety efforts, not for random surveillance or monitoring people engaged in lawful activity.

WRAL reported that officers conducted 5,911 Flock queries in July. The audit reported 23 successes across outcome categories that included nine recovered stolen vehicles, 12 arrests or warrants and eight investigative leads. Because those categories can overlap, they should not be added together as separate cases.

The audit also recommended better completion of Flock’s outcome field so reported results are accurate and complete. The reported outcomes show how heavily the system was used, but they do not by themselves establish that every query was justified or that Flock alone caused an arrest, warrant or vehicle recovery.

What Raleigh should clarify next

The central accountability question is whether Raleigh’s access controls are narrow, current and auditable. The city could address that by disclosing updated account totals, access levels by role, historical-search permissions, inactivity rules and the methodology used to classify accounts as active.

For residents, the August 5 audit provides a clear number—416 active users—but not yet a complete picture of how access is distributed, what searches different users can conduct or how accounts are reviewed over time.

Sources

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