August 19, 2026 10:00 a.m. 

The City of Winston has cancelled its contract with Flock Safety Automatic License Plate Reader cameras, but City Manager Thomas McIntosh said the decision was a financial one only.

The move was announced by Winston Chief of Police Brandon Sarti at Monday night’s city council meeting. Sarti said his department is currently facing $215,000 in budget cuts that need to be made. Winston had been operating eight Flock cameras for a cost of approximately $24,000 a year.

McIntosh told News Radio 93-9 FM and 1240 KQEN that Winston officials understand that there might be a political climate around the flock cameras at the state and federal level. However, McIntosh said their interest in centralized around using tools that increase or enhance the safety and security of citizens and the cameras have been a useful tool in that regard. McIntosh said the cut was not made due to some underlying political issue.

McIntosh said with the city experiencing a budget shortfall, Chief Sarti identified the LPR program as a cut that could be made. McIntosh the city would keep the Flock cameras if they could. He said they have been a very useful tool in terms of targeting criminal activity and closing cases. McIntosh said while the program is discontinued for now, he hopes the city can reinstitute some of them in the future, when the budget allows.