Tinkle Bells & Flock Cameras

👋 Good Morning, Apex! Today is Thursday, December 25, 2025 and this is the 51st consecutive weekly issue of The Peak Weekly.

Merry Christmas!

You’re not going to believe this but I got a photo of Santa arriving in Apex overnight.

Here’s a fun conversation starter for the dinner table tonight:

Did you know that the classic Christmas song Silver Bells was originally titled, Tinkle Bells?

The composer’s wife had to point out that “tinkle” was often used as slang for going to the bathroom, so he changed it.

And speaking of going to the bathroom… out of 64,033 clicks on links inside of The Peak Weekly over 50 weeks, the #1 most clicked link of all time was my tour of Hugh’s bathroom.

So… I guess more bathroom content coming soon. 🤷‍♂️

Anyway, I hope you all had a Happy Hanukkah or have a Merry Christmas, or a Happy Kwanzaa starting tomorrow - or whatever it is that you do!

Today’s newsletter is a bit less meatier than usual as there isn’t as much going on during this week, but nonetheless, here is everything you need to know! See you next year. 💛 

Miscellaneous Info:

🔒️ Town Closures
All Town offices and facilities will be closed today and tomorrow. Same for next Thursday (Jan 1).

🗑️ Trash Delays
If your trash is collected on Thursdays or Fridays, it’ll be one day delayed.

👶 Postpartum Kits
Pelvic Health Fund, a nonprofit with the mission of improving access to pelvic health supplies, recently received a very generous donation of postpartum kits. The kit contains 4 instant freezer perineal pads, 2 reusable cold/hot pads, a peri bottle, and 4 mesh absorbent boy shorts. They reached out asking if we could help spread the word. They are free of charge to anyone in need; just apply here.
 
✨ Holiday Tour of Lights
31 homes and businesses across town have volunteered to spread holiday cheer with beautiful light displays. The tour takes place every night from 6-9pm through December 31. Details and maps here.

🎄 Tree Disposal to Improve Parks
Wake County is encouraging residents to donate your undecorated live Christmas trees to the Happy Trails Christmas Tree Recycling Program between Dec 26 and Jan 31. Trees are turned into nutrient-rich mulch used to maintain Wake County park trails. You can drop your tree off at the Convenience Center from 7am-7pm at 6120 Old Smithfield Road, Apex.

⛹🏾⛹️‍♀️ Basketball Shoutout
Quick shoutout to the Apex Friendship HS Boys Basketball team who are currently 11-0 and the Apex HS Girls Basketball team who are 8-2!

Things to Do This Week in Apex:

Friday, December 26

🎁 9th Annual Re-Gifting Party
6pm - 8pm | Southern Peak Brewery

🎹 BeckyAnn Music
7:30pm - 10:30pm | The Exchange Lounge

🎸 Bad PaiR
8pm - 11pm | Peak of the Vine

Saturday, December 27

🏍️ Bikes and Coffee
8am - 11am | Fratelli’s Deli

🧑‍🌾 Apex Farmers Market
9am - 12pm | The Depot

👋 Farewell 2025
8pm | Peak of the Vine

🎤 Rudy’s Karaoke
9pm - 11:45pm | Rudy’s Pub

Tuesday, December 30

🎤 Open Mic (Salem Street Music Club)
6pm - 9pm | Oaklyn Springs Brewery

💡 Trivia Night
7pm - 8pm | Abbey Road Tavern

🤣 The Backyard Comedy Night
8pm - 10pm | The Backyard Bar

Wednesday, December 31

🎈 Noon Year’s Eve Party
11:30am - 12pm | Eva Perry Library

🎉 Family-Friendly NYE Celebration
2pm - 5pm | Bottle Theory

🥂 New Years Even Celebration
9pm - 1am | Oaklyn Springs Brewery

🍾 New Year Celebration
6pm - 2am | JD’s Tavern

✂️ Upcoming Ribbon Cuttings

January 6 - Kim’s Yong-In Martial Arts

January 8 - OneLife Fitness

January 23 - Salon Hue

🎅 Open Today!

Sora Sushi & Ramen: 11am - 9pm

JD’s Tavern: 4pm - 2am

Lime & Lemon Indian Grill: 11:30am - 10pm (Lounge until Midnight)

Shakey Ray’s Tavern: 4pm - Midnight

Waffle House: All day & night

📸 Santa isn’t the Only One Watching You

Did you know that for the past 11 months, Flock Cameras in Apex have been watching you, recording you, and sharing that data to a third-party cloud?

I don’t mean your typical security camera that is attached to almost every home or building. It’s more like a… well, here’s how the American Civil Liberties Union describes it: “A dangerous nationwide mass-surveillance infrastructure.”

The cameras are located on several major roads through Apex and will even be watching you when you go return grandma’s ugly sweater she got you at Target tomorrow.

(By the way, Cary & Raleigh readers who are here - you guys have this too!)

How it All Started
On January 14, 2025, Town Council spent $71,750 on a 2-year contract with Flock Safety.

It covers the period from Feb 1, 2025 - Jan 31, 2027. The contract procured 5 Flock Safety Falcon Cameras, 5 Flock Safety Falcon Flex Cameras, access to the FlockOS platform, and Advanced Search capabilities.

The Flock Cameras
Flock is an Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR) systems. They are a network of artificial intelligence-driven sensors designed to create a digital perimeter around the community.

They utilize motion detection to identify a vehicle and the camera then captures the rear of the vehicle, focusing on the license plate and the vehicle’s physical characteristics. It can capture every vehicle that drives by across multiple lanes of traffic at speeds up to 100mph and works just as well in the daytime as it does at night.

Their Purpose
The benefits are presented around a philosophy known as Intelligence-Led Policing. The argument is that the system is a proactive, automated system that runs 24-hours. Example scenario: let’s say there is a stolen vehicle. Police can only look for the stolen vehicle within their eyesight. But the flock system, with cameras spread around town, can scan every license plate that passes by and immediately notify the police if located. Flock also claims that its technology has helped reunite more than 1,000 missing persons in the US.

Camera Locations
While APD has not published a map of their camera locations, there is a website called deflock.me which shows the location of some. A couple on 55, one by the Walmart, one on Laura Duncan. Unsure about the others.

But there’s actually more than 10. A unique and somewhat controversial aspect of Flock’s business model is the integration of private surveillance into the public safety network. Flock aggressively markets its products to private entities including HOAs and retail businesses. At least a couple of Flock cameras have been spotted around Beaver Creek and specifically the Lowe’s Home Improvement parking lot.

In addition to that, Flock just announced in October its new partnership with Amazon’s Ring cameras/doorbells effectively turning any residential Ring camera, who opts in, into another tracking source.

The Concerns
Unlike a speed camera (radar detector), which only documents a driver who is committing an infraction, Flock cameras document everyone. Every law-abiding resident who drives by a flock camera is logged in the database. Over time, this data can reveal intimate details about a person based solely on where a person drives and when.

And while they are designed the read license plates, let’s face it. These aren’t scanners. They are cameras. And these cameras are all across Town recording your every move on a third-party application with countless documented security breaches. Here’s a video breakdown from 3 days ago where a guy shows why Flock Cameras are Like Netflix for Stalkers (and record more than just license plates).

Furthermore, if Flock only cares about license plates, then why are they working on plugging their system into commercial data brokers to offer massive people lookup tools?

Here are some additional recent headlines on Flock:

• ICE Using ALPR cameras for Immigration Enforcement (source)

• Flock Camera Captured Kids on a Playground. A Security Failure Exposed Them Online (source)

• Flock Exposed its AI-Powered Cameras to the Internet (source)

• Hillsborough (NC) Cancels License Plate Reader Cameras Due to Data Privacy Concerns (source)

• Flock Safety Pauses Partnership with Federal Agencies Amid Concerns About Cameras Being Misused (video: source)

• Under Surveillance: Constitutional Concerns Surrounding Flock Cameras (source)

APD has promised to not share data with ICE enforcement or other unnecessary third-parties. They have also committed to only storing data for 30 days. With that said, this is a third-party software and, “Flock Can Share Driver-Surveillance Data Even When Police Departments Opt Out” (source).

What’s Next
During the Town Council meeting on January 14, the contract was approved. Notably, this approval was placed on the Consent Agenda which is typically reserved for routine, non-controversial items. It was brought up during the vote that further discussion regarding the policy implementation would occur at a subsequent Work Session that took place in February.

To be clear, the Flock agreement was approved by council 5-0 before finalizing any policy guardrails.

During the follow-up Work Session, they determined that they would need at least a year of data to determine its effectiveness, so it’s likely that council will reconvene sometime after February to analyze those results to determine how to move forward.

Lastly, the Flock + Apex contract shows that Flock supplies an out-of-the-box software solution for the town to set up a public-facing transparency portal. It looks like they have elected to not provide us with the transparency portal at this time. But if you’re curious what that would look like, here is Raleigh’s transparency portal.

Other Civil News:

👨‍⚖️ Supreme Court Justice Issues Warning to Apex
In May 2023, Empire Contractors filed a lawsuit against the Town of Apex, challenging Apex’s requirement that Empire pay $64,000 in lieu of dedicating land for recreation in its 20-lot, 3.5-acre development. Empire is seeking a refund.

About a year later, a trial judge granted class action status to the case, which would allow other developers to join in to also seek refunds.

Two weeks ago, the NC Supreme Court vacated the class-action status basically saying that each individual case was too unique and fact-intensive to be handled as a single group case.

While this was a win for Apex, it’s mostly just a temporary win. The case is back with a trial judge now for a new analysis. It could end up back as a class-action suit again or it may just remain that any individual contractor must bring suit individually.

Meanwhile, Justice Berger issued a two-page opinion, “to highlight the constitutionally suspect nature of the Town’s collection and management of the recreation fees as issue.”

“Empire’s allegations that the recreation fees have been commingled with general town revenue and have not been used to develop recreation spaces near the subdivisions raise threats to this State’s constitutional protections for economic liberty,” Berger wrote.

Full article here

🗓️ Upcoming Dates

Thursday, January 8
Neighborhood Beautification Grant Info Session
6pm - 7pm | Virtual Meeting

Tuesday, January 13
Regular Town Council Meeting
6pm | Town Hall

Wednesday, January 14
Multimodal Transportation Advisory Board
4pm - 6pm | Town Hall

Tuesday, January 27
Developer Roundtable
Partnering to Build Homes for All in Apex
12:30pm - 2pm | Apex Senior Center

A Look Ahead

January 1 | All Day
🔒️ Town Offices and Facilities Closed

January 6 | 12pm - 1pm
✂️ Ribbon Cutting for Kim’s Yong-In Martial Arts

January 8 | 4pm - 5pm
✂️ Ribbon Cutting for OneLife Fitness

January 16-19 | Times Vary
👑 MLK Commemoration Weekend | Various Locations

January 21 | 10am - 12pm
🎬️ Wednesday Morning Movie | The Halle

January 23 | 3pm - 4pm
✂️ Ribbon Cutting for Salon Hue

January 25 | 3pm - 4:30
🎸 Classical Concert Series | The Halle
The Guitar, a Historic Perspective with Duo Romantico

In Case You Missed it…

🐕️ Home for the Holidays
The Wake County Animal Center’s “Home for the Holidays” campaign is offering special adoption fees throug December: $25 for dogs and $5 for cats and kittens.

🏞️ Park Pilot
Beginning January 1, 2026, the Town will launch a pilot initiative to expand morning operational hours. This pilot will run up to eight months and will include the opening of all park entrance gates during all hours. Park hours will be changed from 6:30am opening to 5:30am opening and park entrance gates will no longer be locked.

🏛️ Serve on an Advisory Board
Apex is currently accepting applications from residents within the Town’s corporate limits to serve on the Planning Board, Board of Adjustment, and the Environmental Advisory Board (EAB). The Planning Board also has a very unique opening for residents who live within the Town’s Exterritorial limits (ETJ). The deadline to apply is Wednesday, December 29, 2025. 

🏘️ Apex Announces Developer Roundtable to Advance Affordable Home Production
The Town of Apex Community Development & Neighborhood Connections (CDNC) Housing Division will convene local and regional development partners for a Developer Roundtable, “Partnering to Build Homes for All in Apex,” on Tuesday, January 27, 2026, from 12:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Apex Senior Center. View the Press Release here.

A Final Note:

Thank you for taking time out of your day today to read this week’s edition of The Peak Weekly.

As always, if you have any ideas of how to make this newsletter better, want to nominate a local business or organization to be featured, or anything else, please respond to this email or email me directly at [email protected]

See you next Thursday... 😘