Last week’s News Roundup noted the story of a Charlotte-Mecklenburg officer accused of illegally accessing Flock camera data. According to these reports, at least 20 law enforcement officers in Georgia are facing similar accusations stemming from their alleged misuse of license plate reader data. Several of the cases involved officers allegedly using the data to investigate current or former romantic partners. Flock Safety operates more than 120,000 cameras across the country and complies more than 20 billion data points per month. According to the company, a new audit function has been added to their software which helps detect and deter such misuse, but privacy advocates claim that no meaningful oversight exists regarding officers’ use of the data. A little closer to home, an officer with the Mooresville Police Department is facing a charge of illegally accessing computers for allegedly using a camera system database to track her boyfriend’s ex-wife more than 30 times, according to this piece.

We also covered the phenomenon of citizens destroying or disabling Flock cameras last week. This week brought another such incident. Suspects in Winona, Minnesota, removed all eight of the town’s Flock license plate readers over the course of a single weekend. More on that story here.

Courtroom Interpreter Walkout. Certified courtroom interpreters have begun a statewide walkout beginning today in protest of what they claim are unfair wages. The story linked below notes that most interpreters work as independent contractors and earn hourly wages of between $45 and $55 an hour for their services. Their pay was last increased by five dollars an hour in 2022. While phone and video call interpretation services are an alternative to in-person translation, there are some concerns that the lack of live interpreters could cause delays in court proceedings. More on that report here.  

State Hemp Law Changes on Hold. Earlier this year, I covered the upcoming changes to the federal definition of hemp set to take effect later this year. The changes seem likely to substantially shrink the market for legal hemp absent additional congressional action. This past July, the North Carolina Senate passed a bill that would apply the same changes to the state law definition of hemp. The state House of Representatives seemed poised to adopt the proposed legislation this week until advocates for the hemp industry showed up in force at the legislature to protest the changes. While industry advocates agree with the need for additional regulation of the currently unregulated market, they argue that the proposed bill sweeps too broadly. The bill is off the table the bill for now. Hemp regulations have been repeatedly proposed in the state legislature for several years but the two chambers have yet to see eye to eye on what those regulations should be. That stalemate continues for the time being. WRAL has more here.

Massive Cryptocurrency Theft. Multiple outlets report on the theft of more than 1,800 bitcoin with an estimated value of more than $110 million dollars from Coldcard wallets. So-called “hardware” or “cold” wallets enable a person to move cryptocurrency from a crypto exchange (such as Coinbase or Binance) to an offline storage device. Because cold wallets are not connected to the internet, they are considered more secure than storing the digital currency on a cryptocurrency exchange. Coldcard, a popular cold wallet, apparently had a flaw in the coding of the devices which allowed hackers to discover individual passwords and remotely access the currency held on the devices. The story notes that this is just the latest of a series of cryptocurrency hacking incidents, with more than $2 billion dollars’ worth of assets having been stolen in the first half of 2025 alone. Check out this article for additional details.

Reflecting Pool Cases Dismissed. The Department of Justice recently dropped its felony prosecution of David Hearn for allegedly vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, along with three other similar misdemeanor prosecutions of others. The reversal came after federal prosecutors claim to have discovered new evidence from the Department of the Interior showing that the damage to the pool was the result of “botched installation” by contractors and not vandalism by the charged individuals. More on that report here.   

Duress or Destruction of Evidence? An Atlanta man is facing federal charges stemming from his use of a so-called “duress code” to delete the contents of his phone during a border inspection. Upon returning from a trip out of the country, customs officers asked to examine the man’s phone. The agents claimed to be looking for evidence of child sexual abuse material and told the man that they would seize the phone if he did not agree to let agents access it. The man was apparently using a custom operating system on his Google device, which included a feature whereby a certain passcode would reset the phone and wipe all its data. When he was prompted by the customs officials to provide a password for the device, the man instead gave them the duress code, erasing all data from the phone. The man has been charged with destroying property to prevent its lawful seizure under 18 U.S.C. 2232, which carries a penalty of up to five years imprisonment. Defense counsel for the man claim the search and subsequent prosecution is retaliation for the man’s local activism against the large law enforcement training facility near Atlanta known as Cop City. More on that story here.  (In case you missed it, Jeff blogged about this story earlier in the week.)

Lofty Ambitions. A Florida man was driving down the interstate around midnight when he began hallucinating. His truck strayed out of his lane and hit another vehicle, causing serious injury to two occupants in the other car. First responders appeared on the scene and determined that a medical airlift of the victims was necessary. Once the chopper landed, the man bolted for the cockpit and attempted to fly the helicopter away. He was unsuccessful and was eventually taken into custody by state troopers. According to this piece, the man now faces charges of resisting arrest and burglary of an occupied conveyance.

I hope everyone has a cool and relaxing weekend! I can always be reached at dixon@sog.unc.edu.