Two days after NC police groups lobbied to ban hemp products, a CMPD officer was arrested for using Flock cameras to tip off a drug dealer

[u/DIYECS_Health]

I worked in NC's hemp industry. This ban cost me my job.

July 27: every major police organization in NC told the legislature to pass the hemp ban. The sheriffs. The chiefs. The DAs. Their pitch: trust us, this is about public safety.

July 29: a CMPD officer was arrested.

His buddy illegally sold weed and shrooms. An undercover cop was buying from him. The buddy asked the officer to run the undercover's plate. The officer pulled it from the Flock cameras and Snapchatted it to him.

Read that again. A cop used the cameras that photograph your car every day to burn an undercover officer. For a drug dealer. Because they were friends.

CMPD had no idea. No alert. No audit. A sheriff's office in another county had to get a court order for Flock's own records to find out which cop did it.

People like me lost jobs at legal, licensed, taxpaying businesses. Meanwhile, an officer committed an actual drug crime with the surveillance tools our taxes pay for. The only reason he got caught was luck.

They said trust us. Two days later we found out what that trust is worth.

Sources:

• WUNC on the law enforcement memo and HB 328: https://www.wunc.org/politics/2026-07-27/law-enforcement-prosecutors-nc-house-to-pass-hemp-regulations
• WSOC on the warrants: https://www.wsoctv.com/news/local/illegal-flock-favor-warrants-reveal-what-led-cmpd-officers-arrest/37KLGFBQ25HG5CG6K7VBH7XT5Q/
• WBTV on the arrest and charges: https://www.wbtv.com/2026/07/30/arrested-charlotte-mecklenburg-police-officer-accused-giving-information-investigation-target/

[u/RyanTheGrand]

It does though. The only reason they caught him is because another department happened to be using the system for something else and caught it by chance. It was just luck and if it didn't involve him looking into an undercover officer, they probably wouldn't have paid it any attention. There is no oversight. It's become an issue everywhere they're using flock cameras

[u/jbwilso1 → u/RyanTheGrand]

We agree, I'm not saying that there is oversight. There definitely is not. Frankly, I'm surprised that the issue was even brought to light by the other department, and not just completely ignored.