What's coming up

Responses due by 5pm to Ofcom's consultation on the extra duties for Category 1 services under the Online Safety Act (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit per the Jul 2026 register). It proposes that these platforms offer users identity verification and user-empowerment controls, and sets duties on journalistic content and freedom-of-expression impact assessments. Meta, Roblox and Quora are separately contesting their categorisation. Not established: when Ofcom will publish final codes.

Jailed journalist Zied el-Heni faces a separate hearing on corruption allegations from his time on a municipal council, a week after his terrorism-charges appearance. CPJ reported the date; the court was not named.

Luis Galeano, an exiled Nicaraguan journalist who directs the programme Cafe con Voz, has a hearing on Oct 2, 2026 after ICE detained him in Orlando on Sep 14 while he was driving for Uber. CPJ places him at Baker Correctional Facility; the US Press Freedom Tracker says Krome in Miami. Nicaragua stripped him of citizenship in 2023. NOT ESTABLISHED: the type of hearing and the court -- confirm with his lawyers.

Connecticut's Public Act 26-15, signed by Governor Lamont on June 2, 2026 and effective October 1, 2026, pairs youth social-media protections with chatbot rules requiring operators to make reasonable efforts to detect user expressions of suicidal ideation or self-harm and to respond with appropriate crisis resources.

The county Planning Board study that the council cited when it extended the data-center moratorium to Dec 31, 2027 (Bill 079-26, unanimous, Sep 22) is due Oct 1.

State Department expanded online-presence review takes effect for foreign media (I), TN and TD visa applicants; profiles must be set to public. The State Department announced the expanded screening on Sep 18, 2026; the Oct 1 start is confirmed on travel.state.gov.

First of two Planning Commission public hearings on Bloomington's proposed rules for data centers using 5 MW or more, written under the six-month moratorium adopted in late May 2026. The second is set for Nov 5. The city says the dates could change; officials are also examining whether an outright ban is legally possible.

SB 484 requires every Florida public electric utility to file a large-load customer tariff for Public Service Commission approval by Oct 1, 2026. This is where the law's central promise is either kept or hollowed out: the tariffs must reasonably ensure large-load customers pay their own cost of service and that the risk of nonpayment is not borne by the general body of ratepayers. PSC proceedings take public comment, and the filings are the first concrete test of whether the ratepayer protection has substance. Watch also for compliance with the anti-load-splitting clause and the rule that curtailment cannot be contracted away. CHECKED 22 SEP: the Oct 1 filing deadline is confirmed from the Senate bill summary; the law sets no date by which the PSC must rule. Whether Duke Energy Florida or any other utility has already filed, and under which docket, could not be confirmed. THE FIRST FILING IS ALREADY IN TROUBLE: Duke Energy Florida's large-load tariff (PSC Docket 20260064-EI, filed Apr 22) sets 20-year contracts and minimum bills for 50 MW-plus customers but no separate rate; at the Aug 25 hearing Public Counsel and a commissioner called it noncompliant, and Duke's household cost projections are confidential at its request (own record). Watch whether FPL, TECO and FPUC file by Oct 1.

After a 7-1-1 vote on Sep 16 (Umstattd no, Kershner abstaining) directing staff to draft it, the Board of Supervisors is expected to take a final vote in October on pausing new data-center (and reportedly substation) applications for up to 12 months. Date not announced -- check the board agenda; may coincide with the Oct 6 by-right report.

Commissioner Vince Nowicki's Sep 1 resolution would end county Flock and Axon plate-reader agreements and clear county roads within 30 days; Sheriff Bob Gualtieri is removing only the 23 of 73 cameras on state right-of-way. Florida Politics reports the discussion moved to an October workshop; Axios had earlier given Oct 8. DATE NOT CONFIRMED -- check the county agenda.

Sir Ian Cheshire's review of Ofcom -- operating model, staffing, enforcement framework and powers under the Online Safety Act -- is due to conclude in early autumn 2026 per his 15 July letter to ministers; some recommendations may need legislation. NOT ESTABLISHED: exact date, and whether findings will be published.

After voting 7-3 on Aug 10 to postpone, Fayetteville City Council is due to reconsider revised data-center zoning rules by late October 2026. The draft would permit data centers in industrial zones, allow some commercial sites with council approval, and bar them from residential areas. A motion to consider a moratorium instead failed 5-5. Exact date not published; council meets at City Hall, 433 Hay St.

Sheriff Ross Teeple's non-renewal takes effect at the end of September 2026; city contracts in Maricopa and Casa Grande are unaffected.

The Florida Department of Transportation memo of Aug 31, 2026 (signed Sept 1 in ABC News' account) revoked law-enforcement plate-reader permits on the state highway system and gave agencies 30 days to remove the cameras; readers on city and county roads are not covered. Check which agencies have removed theirs and whether any sought an exception. No extension had been reported by Sep 22. Pasco County's separate county-road agreement also ends Sep 30, and Putnam's sheriff set the same 30-day window for all 18 of his cameras.

Under the emergency ordinance the Knox County Commission passed unanimously on Aug 31, 2026, the Sheriff's Office has 30 days to remove its stationary license plate readers (about 140; the UT Daily Beacon counts 143) and delete their data except for active investigations. The sheriff's office did not attend the vote and had not responded. Date computed as 30 days from passage; confirm against the ordinance text. Headlines on Sep 22-23 (WATE, MSN) say Flock told the county it will miss the Sep 30 removal deadline, and plastic covers are going on the cameras until removal in October; the articles were not read. Outgoing Mayor Glenn Jacobs said enforcement falls to incoming Mayor Betsy Henderson; the county had already revoked camera permits and found unpermitted utility-pole placements (WVLT).

Wichita's Flock Safety contract reaches its documented end date on Sept 30, 2026. An expiry is a decision point, not an ending: the question is whether it is renewed, renegotiated or allowed to lapse, and whether that happens in public. CHECKED 22 SEP: no council action on renewal was found, and this date comes only from a contract tracker, not a city document. The $1.6 million federal grant that bought the network expired Mar 31, 2026. A Kansas-constitution lawsuit against the network, filed Jul 29 by the Kansas Justice Institute, is pending in Sedgwick County District Court.

Second of three council hearings organised by Councilman Brian Kazy (others: Sep 24, Collinwood Rec Center 6-8 p.m.; Oct 7, Gunning Rec Center 6-8 p.m.). This City Hall session, 5-8 p.m., has extended public comment. Cleveland's three-month data-center moratorium expires Oct 20 unless extended.

Arraignment of former Braintree detective Mark Sherrick on a criminal harassment charge; prosecutors allege 1,000+ Flock lookups of an ex-girlfriend's car plus a GPS tracker. Court not named in the source read.

Bids close for SITA tender RFB-3286-2026-ERP-496011 for SAPS body-worn and dashboard cameras with facial recognition.

NO TRILOGUE ON 1 SEPTEMBER. The sixth round of talks on the EU's permanent Child Sexual Abuse Regulation is set for 29 September 2026 in Brussels, under the Irish Council presidency. According to reports on the negotiations, the institutions have already tentatively agreed to keep end-to-end encrypted content out of scope and to drop age-verification provisions. They still disagree on whether scanning is voluntary, mandatory, or limited to suspects. The Council has warned that accepting an encryption carve-out in the interim law does not bind it on the permanent one. Whether 29 September produces a deal is not established.

First reading of a bill by Oliver Davis Jr. and Sherry Bolden-Simpson banning city NDAs on data centers; Mayor Mueller has said he would veto it.

The City Plan Commission holds the first public hearing on Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic's proposal (co-sponsors Brower, Stamper, Bauman) to stop accepting data-center applications for a year or until permanent zoning rules exist. Endorsed by the Zoning Code Technical Committee Aug 10; needs Common Council approval afterwards. Bauman's amendment would exempt Potawatomi tribal-land data centers. Check the city agenda for the time.

The City of Alachua commission reviews the draft 12-month moratorium on accepting, processing and reviewing data-center applications that it ordered on Sep 14. Trigger: a 104-acre site east of San Felasco Tech City (in unincorporated Alachua County) marketed in May as a high-megawatt data-center site. Whether Sep 28 is a first reading or a discussion item is not established. A CONFLICTING ACCOUNT of Sep 14: the Independent Florida Alligator reports the mayor declared a motion to delay dead, that no moratorium vote was formally taken, and that residents walked out -- so whether the commission actually directed a draft is disputed. Sep 28 is confirmed as the next discussion.

Columbus City Council is set to vote on an ordinance from Council President Shannon Hardin and Councilmember Christopher Wyche requiring the city's Division of Water and Power to set new rates for large-load users including data centers, 30 percent renewable sourcing for on-site generation, water-use disclosure and reclaimed-water use, and decommissioning plans. DATE CONFLICT: Axios (Sep 17) gives Sep 28 for the vote on four measures (large-load rates, 30% renewable on-site generation, water disclosure, decommissioning plans); WOSU said the rates ordinance could come up as early as Sep 21. Check the council's results.

Piedmont City Council is scheduled to vote on Cloverleaf Infrastructure's annexation and PUD rezoning for Project Open Sky, a data-center campus on about 633 acres in Canadian County, at 6:30 p.m. The item was tabled on Sep 17 so the city attorney could revise the PUD text. Cloverleaf's revisions drop on-site generation and wells, cap water at 75,000 gallons a day, and offer nearby homeowners a buyout; residents have petitioned for an 18-month pause or a ban.

Jailed journalist Zied el-Heni appears on four terrorism-related counts tied to his verification of a 2023 leaked recording involving ex-Ennahda official Mondher Lounissi. A separate hearing on corruption allegations follows on 2 Oct 2026.

The Grant County Commission was expected to consider a one-year moratorium on data centres at its 24 Sep meeting, after residents learned of Site Layer 1's gas-fired data centre planned near Hachita and Playas. Confirm on the county agenda. CONFIRMED: CONFIRMED (not yet held): Silver City Radio (Sep 9 local news) reports Commissioner Nancy Stephens is proposing a one-year moratorium on new data centers so the county can study costs and benefits and write rules, scheduled for the County Commission on Sep 24, 2026. Trigger: Site Layer 1, LLC's air-quality permit filing for a data center about 11.8 miles west-northwest of Hachita; water source and cooling system not public. Can drop 'tentative' in part -- still check the posted agenda.

Judge Timothy Kelly (US District Court for DC, No. 1:26-cv-02754) hears the three outlets' bid for emergency relief restoring White House access at 3:30 p.m. ET. Reports differ on whether the motion is for a TRO or a preliminary injunction. Watch for a ruling from the bench or a written order.

ONE LOCAL RULEBOOK IN 13 CHECKS A DATA CENTRE AFTER IT OPENS. We read the 13 local 'restricted' records here against their sources. Only Henry County, VA writes in a scheduled, measurable duty that outlives the ribbon-cutting: a noise test within 90 days of full operation, a noise test every year for the life of the facility, and a review of the decommissioning bond every three years. McLean County, IL requires notice if a facility's power needs grow by more than 20% -- a trigger, not a schedule (per the draft; the adopted text was not read). Floyd County, GA, North Little Rock, AR and Wixom, MI set noise and utility limits with fines -- up to $1,000 a day in Floyd -- but nobody is required to measure; enforcement waits for a complaint. The other eight -- Loudoun, Christiansburg and Prince William, VA; Port Washington and Janesville, WI; San Jose and Santa Clara, CA; South Bend, IN -- change who approves, not what an operating plant must prove. The 14 state laws and regulator orders are a different animal: rate classes and, in South Dakota, New Jersey and Washington, periodic reporting. NOT ESTABLISHED: whether Henry County will publish the annual results. WHAT TO ASK your council: who measures after opening, how often, and where the results are filed.

The Home Office set out its largest-ever facial-recognition expansion in a January 2026 policing white paper, funding 40 new live facial recognition (LFR) vans for a national rollout across England and Wales and pledging 115 million pounds for a National Centre for AI in Policing. LFR was in use by 13 of 43 forces by March 2026, and the first permanent LFR cameras went live in South London in October 2025. Rights groups and the Equality and Human Rights Commission have contested the deployments, with the EHRC joining a judicial review arguing the Metropolitan Police's use of LFR is unlawful. NORTH YORKSHIRE WENT LIVE ON 23 SEPTEMBER 2026. North Yorkshire Police ran its first live facial recognition deployment in York city centre, scanning for people wanted for offences or by the courts and those judged a risk of harm; the force says non-matches are deleted within a fifth of a second. Deputy Mayor Jo Coles said she had sought assurances on oversight and mission creep and would question the force at her public meetings. By June, Statewatch counted 12 force areas using LFR, four of them for the first time in the previous six months. Which forces receive the 40 promised vans, and when, has not been published. Results of the York deployment are not yet reported.

Salem military court's extension of Naqaa Hamed's detention runs to Sep 23; a further hearing or release decision is expected.

The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, chaired by Sen. Josh Hawley, holds a hearing titled Always Watching: Flock's Nationwide AI Surveillance Network at 2:30 p.m. in Dirksen 562. Hawley invited the CEOs of Flock (Garrett Langley), Axon (Rick Smith), Motorola Solutions (Greg Brown) and Verkada (Filip Kaliszan); no witness list was posted as of Sep 22, so attendance is unconfirmed. Watch for whether Flock says it produced the documents Hawley demanded by Sep 8, and whether a subpoena is raised. Live video is posted on the committee site. WITNESS LIST POSTED: NO SURVEILLANCE-COMPANY CEO IS ON IT. The Sep 23 hearing (2:30 p.m., Dirksen 562) lists five witnesses: Lindsey Isaacs, jailed 13 days after a Flock-led arrest; Alasdair Whitney of the Institute for Justice; Pinal County, AZ Sheriff Ross Teeple; security researcher Benn Jordan; and Chad Marlow of the ACLU. Sen. Hawley had invited the CEOs of Flock, Axon, Motorola Solutions and Verkada; none appears. Whether they declined, and whether Hawley moves to compel, is what to watch. Video is on the committee site.

Woodbury City Council considers an interim ordinance pausing, for up to a year, applications, permits, rezonings, comprehensive-plan amendments, conditional use permits and variances for data centers and expansions -- and for any use that would rank among the city's top water or sewer users. No data-center application is pending; staff cite rising developer interest in Minnesota.

$1.07 MILLION FOR 62 GENERATORS RUN WITHOUT PERMITS. New Jersey's environmental regulator on 22 Sep 2026 fined DataOne, whose Vineland data centre serves Nebius, for installing and operating 62 natural-gas generators of nearly 2 MW each with no air permits -- by this site's arithmetic roughly 120 MW of on-site combustion no regulator had reviewed. Inspectors found it on 29 Jul; the last inspection had been in December 2025. DataOne has 45 days to obtain permits or shut the units off. Commissioner Ed Potosnak called it the largest action ever taken against a data centre in the state. The company says the generators are a stopgap until Bloom fuel cells come online and disputes DEP's view of 'temporary'. This is the same project the city approved for a next phase over resident objection (see pb-nj-vineland-approved): it has since drawn stop-work notices for starting LNG and fuel-cell construction without city sign-off, and a class-action suit from neighbours over noise. NOT ESTABLISHED: whether DataOne appeals the penalty.

THREE NEW JERSEY TOWNS ARE NOW BEING SUED OVER THEIR BANS, not one. The New Jersey Monitor reported that developers have sued MONTGOMERY, ANDOVER and MONROE seeking to overturn municipal prohibitions on data centres. The Monroe case (Hexa Builders, more than $300 million) is recorded separately here -- and it is not the only one with a number attached. THE ARGUMENT THE DEVELOPERS ARE MAKING IS THE part worth recording, because it will be made everywhere: the suit against Montgomery's ordinance contends the township committee acted on "public hysteria" and political attention rather than sound land use planning. That is a claim about PROCESS, not about data centres -- it says a ban passed under public pressure is not a planning decision and should not survive review. Every one of the roughly 38 New Jersey ordinances was passed under exactly that kind of pressure, and most were passed with no application pending, which is the fact the argument is designed to exploit. WHAT IS NOT ESTABLISHED: none of the three has been decided. If any succeeds, the reasoning would reach far past New Jersey, and it would land hardest on the towns that acted earliest and with the least record of planning analysis behind them. This is the same mechanism recorded in Illinois, where a county attorney's warning that a moratorium invited suit killed the moratorium before a vote -- here the towns acted first and the litigation followed. THE PRICE TAG APPEARS TWICE. E. Kahn Development Corp. is seeking $300 million from Montgomery in Somerset County Superior Court (filed 31 Jul 2026) over Ordinance 26-1779, adopted 18 Jun, which barred data centres from the 257-acre former Kenvue campus -- the complaint is where the 'public hysteria' language comes from. Hexa Builders' suit against Monroe is in federal court before Judge Edward Kiel, where the township moved in late July to dismiss, arguing a land-use rule does not become a speech restriction because data centres carry communications. National Land Developers sued Andover in Sussex County Superior Court on 10 Jul over Ordinance 2026-13 (adopted 12 May), alleging Municipal Land Use Law notice defects and no valid planning purpose, over a former airport site of about 100 acres. NOT ESTABLISHED, as of 22 Sep 2026: any ruling or hearing date in any of the three. WHAT WOULD SETTLE IT: Judge Kiel's ruling on the motion to dismiss, and case management orders in Somerset and Sussex. NO FOURTH SUIT FOUND as of 22 Sep 2026 in news coverage (court dockets were not searched). THE CLOSEST PARALLEL IS IN ILLINOIS: on 18 Jun 2026 Logan County's own state's attorney declared a freshly adopted 12-month moratorium invalid, two days after the developer Hut 8 threatened to sue, because it had skipped the zoning board advisory vote and public hearings its zoning process requires (own record). No court ruled; the threat was enough. That is the same kind of procedural argument being made against Andover. On the other side, Seton Hall's Matthew Hale told Gothamist that banning towns stand on firm ground under the Municipal Land Use Law's strong grant of local control.

AN EXECUTIVE ORDER IS NOT THE BILL IT REPLACED, and the difference expires. New York's Responsible Data Center Development Act (S10642 Gonzalez / A11560 Barrett) passed both chambers on Jun 4, 2026 in the final hours of the session, with bipartisan support. THE OFFICIAL SENATE ROLL CALL IS 43-17, with one absent and two excused (nysenate.gov, vote on A11560 after substitution). THE ASSEMBLY PASSED IT 103-38 by LegiScan's roll call of the Jun 4 vote -- Democrats 93-3, Republicans 10-35, nine absent. Two law-firm summaries report 102-39, but one of them also puts the Senate at 44-16 against the official 43-17, so 103-38 is the better-supported figure; the Assembly's own roll-call page has still not been read. As of 22 Sep 2026 the Legislature's own record shows the bill passed both houses and NOT YET DELIVERED to the governor: she has neither signed nor vetoed it. Governor Hochul did not sign it. On Jul 14 she issued Executive Order 62 instead, which this map already records as the first statewide data-centre moratorium in the country. WHAT THE EO DOES NOT DO is the point. The order pauses discretionary DEC permits for projects of 50 MW or more -- with no fixed end date; it runs until the Department of Public Service delivers a final generic environmental impact statement -- and directs the Department of Public Service to study impacts. The bill would have added a new Article 31 to the Environmental Conservation Law and amended the Public Service, Public Authorities, Energy and Labor Laws to create PERMANENT structure: a separate classification of utility service for large data centres, so their power and water costs are not spread across households and small businesses; a public participation process; host community benefits; renewable energy and energy efficiency requirements; and labour standards. The moratorium in the bill covers facilities drawing more than 20 MW. An order pauses; a statute sets the terms that apply when the pause ends -- and the order can be lifted whenever the study is done, with nothing behind it. THE CLOCK IS NOT RUNNING YET: under New York practice the governor's decision period starts only when the Legislature delivers the bill, and it has not been delivered. If it is never delivered before the session ends, the work restarts in a new session. THE PRESSURE IS UNUSUALLY WELL DOCUMENTED. Sixty members of the Assembly and Senate signed a letter on Aug 24 urging her to sign; Assemblymember Didi Barrett and Senator Michelle Hinchey wrote separately on Aug 20; Senator Gonzalez toured 13 sites with active or proposed data centres between Aug 22 and Aug 30; Rockland County became the first county to pass a resolution backing the bill, and Albany's Common Council voted 12-0 for one, already recorded here. Tompkins County legislators went furthest, replying to a fundraising request from the governor's campaign that they could not be counted on unless she signed before Nov 3. THE OPPOSING CASE, stated: opponents argue a statewide moratorium discourages investment and sends projects and jobs to other states. BILL NUMBERS, RESOLVED: S10642/A11560 is the omnibus that passed; the AB 10141/SB 9144 numbers were predecessor bills folded into it (see the executive-order record).

THIRTY-EIGHT MUNICIPALITIES, FOUR OF THEM IN ONE WEEK, and the most of any state -- but read the count carefully. Stafford Township, Jackson Township, North Brunswick and East Brunswick all acted in the last week of August 2026, and New Jersey is approaching 40 municipal bans on data-centre construction. WHO IS COUNTING MATTERS, as it does for every tally on this site: the figure is kept by Climate Revolution Action Network New Jersey, an advocacy group that describes itself as the state's largest Gen-Z political organisation and that trains residents to pass these ordinances. It is the best count available and it is not a government register. THE LEGAL QUESTION UNDERNEATH THE NUMBER, raised by an opponent of data centres rather than a supporter: in New Jersey, as under most municipal land-use schemes, a use not specifically permitted is already prohibited. Jackson's own township counsel advised that data centres were therefore ALREADY barred everywhere in the township before any ban was passed, and the council president voted against the ordinance arguing that defining the use gives applicants' lawyers something to work with. If that reading is right, some share of these 38 ordinances are symbolic at best and counterproductive at worst -- and nobody counting bans is counting that distinction. NOT ESTABLISHED: no court has ruled, and the answer will differ by municipality depending on how each code is written. WHAT IS ALREADY BEING TESTED IS THE PRICE. Two developers have sued: Hexa Builders is seeking $300 MILLION from Monroe Township in Gloucester County over its April 2026 ban, now in federal court, and a developer sued Andover Township in Sussex County over its ban earlier. That is the same mechanism recorded on this map in Illinois, where a county's own attorney warned a moratorium invited suit and the moratorium died without a vote. In New Jersey the towns passed the bans anyway and the bill is arriving afterwards. WHAT WOULD SETTLE THE REAL QUESTION: how many of the 38 have been tested by an application or a suit. Thirty-six have not. THE COUNT IS NOT AGREED, AND THE DISAGREEMENT IS BETWEEN ALLIES. On the night of Aug 25, 2026 two advocacy groups working TOGETHER on the same ordinances published incompatible totals. Climate Revolution Action Network called North Brunswick, East Brunswick and Stafford the 35th, 36th and 37th New Jersey municipalities to ban data centres, and Jackson the 38th the following night. At the East Brunswick meeting the same evening, Food & Water Watch's Charlie Kratovil told the council it was joining MORE THAN 50 other New Jersey communities. Both groups organised these ordinances side by side. The gap is at least fourteen towns. WHAT WOULD EXPLAIN IT is a definitional difference of the kind this map keeps running into -- whether a moratorium counts as a ban, whether a planning-board recommendation counts before the council votes, whether a town where the use was never permitted counts at all -- and neither group publishes its rule. A THIRD COUNT, from electricchoice.com, tracks 225 moratoriums across 30 states and puts Ohio first with 35, then Michigan 34, Georgia 24 and North Carolina 19, which would displace New Jersey from the top spot entirely; but that count is of MORATORIUMS, and New Jersey's claim is about outright BANS, so the two are not measuring the same thing. OHIO'S OWN COUNT HAS SINCE OVERTAKEN IT: the Ohio Capital Journal's reporter Siddarth Sivaraman counted at least 138 Ohio municipalities and townships with data-centre moratoriums in force as of 17 Sep 2026, working from local records and news reports -- the headline rounds it to more than 125 -- plus 23 Ohio communities that have effectively banned data centres. He says the true figure is likely higher because many townships post nothing online. One newsroom's hand count in one state is more than half electricchoice's national total, so that tracker is a large undercount. The comparable Ohio figure for New Jersey's ban claim is the 23 effective bans, not the 138 pauses. WE ARE NOT PICKING A NUMBER. This site records that the range runs from roughly 38 to more than 50 depending on who is counting, that no government register exists, and that anyone citing a single figure should say whose rule they are using. THE ROSTER, AS PUBLISHED. CRAN's list of New Jersey municipalities with bans on the books, reported by Patch on Aug 20, 2026, named 33: Andover, Asbury Park, Bayonne, Berkeley Heights, Bernards, Burlington, Cherry Hill, Deerfield, Delanco, East Greenwich, Edgewater Park, Harrison, Holland, Holmdel, Howell, Jersey City, Logan Township, Mansfield, Medford, Millville, Monroe, Montgomery, Neptune, Pemberton, Red Bank, Sayreville, Sparta, Summit, Union, Vernon, Warren, Waterford and Winslow. Adding Stafford, North Brunswick and East Brunswick on Aug 25 gives 36, and Jackson on Aug 26 gives 37 -- while CRAN called Jackson the 38th. One municipality is unaccounted for in the published list, which is a further reason to treat any single figure as approximate. Cinnaminson and South Brunswick had ordinances awaiting second reading. THE STATE HAS NOT FOLLOWED THE TOWNS: in May 2026 Governor Mikie Sherrill announced a plan to REGULATE rather than ban, promising guardrails, transparency, investment in energy infrastructure and job standards, and positioning New Jersey to compete in AI. So the municipal wave and the state policy are pulling in different directions, which is the same split recorded in Michigan and now New York. THE NUMBER HAS MOVED AGAIN, AND STILL NOBODY PUBLISHES THE LIST. On 2 Sep 2026 Gothamist reported 93 New Jersey municipalities with data-centre bans, attributed to Climate Revolution Action Network's Ben Dziobek, who said his group had passed nearly 40 itself and found through further research that the real total was nearing 100. CRAN's website carries no roster or counting rule; the newest published list is still Patch's 33 names from 20 Aug, which Patch called full or partial bans. OUR AUDIT OF THOSE 33: seventeen are confirmed ordinance bans from a direct local report; Sayreville is an 18-month moratorium; Asbury Park's June action was a council RESOLUTION, which cannot change zoning in New Jersey; twelve we could not verify. And the list misses towns: Hardyston adopted a ban on 24 Jun 2026 and is not on it. So the right statement is: somewhere between the high 30s and the low 90s, depending on whose rule and whether you count resolutions, moratoriums and codes that never permitted the use. The towns written up individually from local reports this build: Millville, Holmdel, Bernards, Cherry Hill, Medford, Mansfield, Neptune, Red Bank, Vernon, Warren, Hardyston and Andover. A FOURTH COUNT, AND THE ROSTER AUDIT MOVES. The Pinelands Alliance, a conservation group, lists 79 New Jersey municipalities with data-centre bans as of 14 Sep 2026, by name and county but with no counting rule or ordinance links. It leaves out Sayreville (a moratorium) and Asbury Park (a resolution), which suggests it counts only bans. It also leaves out Hardyston, Holland and Sparta. Its list settles several ambiguous names on CRAN's 20 Aug roster: they are Burlington Township, Pemberton Township, Harrison Township in Gloucester County and Union Township in Union County. Of the twelve roster towns we could not previously verify, local reports now confirm Waterford (Ordinance 2026-12, 8 Apr, 4-0) and East Greenwich (reported 12 Jun, after an American Tower application was withdrawn). A regional roundup reports Harrison, Logan and Pemberton Townships as adopted. Winslow's ban was introduced on 14 Apr for a 26 May final vote, and Union Township's passed first reading; neither final vote is confirmed. Burlington Township, Deerfield, Delanco, Edgewater Park and Holland are still unverified from a primary. Separately, Gloucester Township in Camden County adopted Ordinance O-26-16 on 15 Sep, and it covers redevelopment areas too. The range now runs from roughly 38 to 93 depending on who counts, and 79 falls inside it. Written up individually this build: Waterford, East Greenwich, Harrison Township, Logan Township, Pemberton Township, Gloucester Township, and Winslow and Union as pending.

FAYETTE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS APPROVED A TEMPORARY DATA-CENTRE MORATORIUM, reported Sep 22, 2026. As proposed, it freezes zoning applications, zoning approvals and building permits for data centres for one year in the unincorporated parts of most of the county's townships -- Concord, Green, Jasper, Madison, Marion, Paint and Perry were named in the proposal. It follows a run of annexation petitions as landowners and developers try to move parcels between jurisdictions before large projects arrive -- the same move that defeats county pauses elsewhere. NOT ESTABLISHED: the date and vote of adoption, and whether the final version covers seven or eight townships.

BALTIMORE COUNTY EXTENDED ITS DATA-CENTER PAUSE UNANIMOUSLY -- NOW TO DEC 31, 2027. On Sep 22 the County Council passed Bill 079-26, from Councilman David Marks, pushing the moratorium's end from January 2027 to the end of 2027; every member had co-signed it before the vote. Members said it buys time to review a county Planning Board study due Oct 1 and to see what the state legislature does. The Maryland Tech Council's Kelly Schulz argued the county would lose tech growth. Marks dropped an amendment to add battery-storage facilities, saying he would file it separately. This is Baltimore COUNTY, distinct from Baltimore City's own one-year pause. What to watch: the Oct 1 Planning Board study and Marks' battery-storage bill.

NEW DATA CENTRES NOW NEED A PUBLIC VOTE ACROSS MOST OF THE COUNTY. On 22 Sep 2026 Prince William's supervisors reduced the 2016 Data Center Opportunity Zone Overlay District from about 9,700 acres to roughly 3,650 and closed it to future expansion, so new data centres outside it require a special use permit and a public board vote rather than by-right approval. Patch, relaying the Prince William Times, reports the vote as unanimous. A 90-day transition protects some land already in the overlay; the Planning Commission had recommended 120 days on a 5-3 vote on 10 Sep, and a motion to scrap the grace period entirely failed. This is a restriction, not a ban: projects inside the remaining 3,650 acres, and those that file inside the 90 days, are unaffected. Virginia's Dillon's Rule is why the county acted by zoning rather than a moratorium. NOT ESTABLISHED: the roll call by name and how many applications the transition lets through.

LUBBOCK'S COUNCIL VOTED 5-2 ON SEP 22, 2026 TO START A 90-DAY DATA-CENTER MORATORIUM -- after residents petitioned for 18 months and got a non-binding promise first. Save Lubbock submitted a petition on Aug 3 that HPPR reports carried more than 3,900 verified signatures against 2,410 needed. At the Sep 8 hearing the council passed, unanimously, a non-binding resolution from Tim Collins that large-scale data centers would not be developed until the city adopts rules, and did not adopt the moratorium. On Sep 22 it went further, starting the process for a 90-day pause while staff draft standards on water, power, zoning, noise and light; Collins and Tim Green voted no. Save Lubbock called it a meaningful step and said an 18-month pause was not workable under Texas law. The fight began with a July annexation and industrial rezoning near I-27 that residents suspected was for a data center; the economic development agency said it did not expect one there. NOT ESTABLISHED: when the moratorium itself is adopted, and when it takes effect.

Delayed twice, not dead. Councilman Russ Jehl's proposal to create a Data Center & Community Quality of Life+ Task Force -- the centerpiece of his transparency package around Google's multibillion-dollar southeast Fort Wayne campus -- was first held 8-0 on Jun 16, 2026 after council members said they did not know how the group would operate, and again on Jul 14, pushing the vote to Sept 8. The politics of the first delay matter: Councilwoman Rohli Booker, who represents southeast Fort Wayne, had not been included in drafting the legislation and warned that claims of investment flowing to her district could later justify sending it fewer resources. By July she and Councilman Geoff Paddock were co-working the proposal, with open questions on committee size, appointment power, whether recommendations bind, and timeline. Booker's framing shifted to forward-looking protections on the theory that more data centers are coming. THE PROJECT UNDERNEATH: Google's full plan calls for 12 buildings phased across an 892-acre site east of Adams Center Road, land already zoned industrial, so zoning will not stop the buildout -- each building needs only individual permits. Hatchworks LLC, a Google subsidiary, has asked IDEM for 143 additional diesel generators; the comment period closed Nov 17 with more than a hundred residents opposing at hearing, and a decision is still pending. THAT CHANGED ON SEP 8. Jehl withdrew the task force and his oversight-board proposal; Booker introduced a 365-day moratorium on new data-center projects, exempting Google's campus and directing Planning Services to draft permanent standards, plus an advisory Community Infrastructure and Environmental Review Commission. Jehl backed it. On Sep 22 the council held the moratorium three weeks, to Oct 13, to review several amendments. NOT ESTABLISHED: whether it passes, and IDEM's decision on Hatchworks' 143 generators.

NONE OF THESE LAWS SAYS 'TRAIN'. TWO OF THEM STILL REACH THE VENDOR. Checked on the official legislature sites, read through a text-extraction tool, so check the exact wording before quoting: Minnesota, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, with California read through the Assembly's own analysis. NEW HAMPSHIRE: plates may not be recorded or transmitted anywhere and must be purged within three minutes unless there is a hit, so no vendor holds anything to learn from. MINNESOTA: data may not be shared, sold or traded to anyone beyond qualifying police agencies. The duty lies on agencies, but state law binds government contractors as if they were the agency. Minnesota also covers private cameras whose data are shared with police. MONTANA: a 90-day cap binds the 'custodian' of the data, and police-gathered data may not be sold. MAINE: only listed public uses are lawful at all, with a 21-day cap. CALIFORNIA: the sale ban binds public agencies only, and there is no retention cap. The 2025 fix was vetoed. Vermont and Utah could not be read. Ask your council: does our contract let the vendor do what our state's statute forbids us to do? UTAH REACHES THE VENDOR; VERMONT DOES NOT. Utah's plate-reader law defines the 'governmental entity' it regulates to include anyone acting as the agency's agent or on its behalf, so a vendor holding plates for police is bound by the same rules: use only for listed purposes, a nine-month retention cap, no sharing beyond those purposes, and no sale. It does not cover a private company collecting plates for itself. Vermont's law, rewritten from July 2025, is stricter on police -- seven days of active access, everything sent to the Department of Public Safety, 18 months then destruction -- but places every duty on agencies and the department. It has no sale ban and says nothing about vendors. Ask your council in Vermont: does our contract stop the vendor from keeping a copy?

MONROE VOTED 5-0 TO TAKE DOWN ITS 23 FLOCK CAMERAS. On Sep 22, 2026 the five council members present voted unanimously to remove the city's plate readers, with Mayor Keith Funk and Vice Mayor Christina McElfresh excused. The city had already paid $73,000 on a contract that runs to June 2027. Police had pointed to the cameras' role in heading off a potential murder and finding a teenager in crisis; members weighed that against privacy, data-security and constitutional concerns, and one called it his hardest vote on council. Earlier the council had moved to approve every Flock invoice itself. NOT ESTABLISHED: the removal date and whether any prepaid money comes back.

SCOTTSDALE'S MAYOR ASKED THE COUNCIL TO PUT FLOCK ON THE AGENDA. On Sep 22, 2026 Mayor Lisa Borowsky asked colleagues to schedule a formal council discussion of the police department's Flock plate readers, proposed for the Oct 20 meeting; a majority was needed just to schedule it, and the council could instead ask the city manager for a report or do nothing. The police chief has already offered new safeguards, including an independent audit of the system. The request comes after nearly a dozen Arizona agencies ended or changed Flock arrangements amid officer-misuse cases. NOT ESTABLISHED: whether the council agreed to schedule the discussion, how many cameras Scottsdale runs, and the contract's term.

THE MAYOR BACKS FLOCK; THE COUNCIL NEVER VOTED ON IT. Muncie runs 24 Flock cameras under contracts signed by the police chief in 2022 and 2023 without a council vote or public announcement, according to records obtained by the local outlet Muncie Voice, which puts the commitment at about $300,000 through December 2028. Mayor Dan Ridenour said on Sep 22, 2026 that he fully supports the cameras for their results and that officers are trained against misuse -- while at least six Indiana cities and counties voted to cancel in the previous 30 days. Muncie Voice is pushing a surveillance-oversight ordinance. NOT ESTABLISHED: any council action; the contract figures come from one outlet. Ask the council whether it will require a vote before the 2028 renewal.

Continued from Sep 15. Police chief recommends a $3.5M amendment to the Axon contract (to $12M through Sep 2031): 110 plate readers, 60 CCTV cameras, five drones. Outcome not yet reported as of Sep 23.

The City Council holds a work session on the Flock plate readers the city suspended on Sep 4. The police department is to present data and answer concerns. Work sessions take no votes and allow no public comment, but are open to attend. Start time conflicts between reports (3 p.m. per the Verde Independent, 6 p.m. per Journal AZ) -- check the city agenda. OUTCOME: POLICE CHIEF SAYS COTTONWOOD IS CANCELLING FLOCK -- 11 CAMERAS TO ZERO. At the Sep 22 City Council work session, Chief Brian Freudenthal said the city would cancel its Flock plate-reader contract and physically remove all 11 cameras, which had been switched off and bagged since Sep 4, per the Jen's Two Cents newsletter's account of the meeting (the only report read). He credited the cameras with solving crimes but said public trust came first, and that any future plate-reader system would need extensive public meetings, not just a council vote. No vote was taken -- work sessions do not vote. NOT ESTABLISHED: when the cameras come down, the contract's termination date, and any written confirmation from the city. Ask the city manager for the termination notice.

SUPERVISORS VOTED TO END BY-RIGHT DATA CENTRES ACROSS MOST OF THE OVERLAY. On 22 Sep 2026 Prince William's Board of County Supervisors cut the 2016 Data Center Opportunity Zone Overlay District from about 9,700 acres to roughly 3,650 and closed it to future expansion; data centres outside it now need a special use permit and a board vote. Patch, relaying the Prince William Times, reports the vote as unanimous. Land already in the overlay gets a 90-day transition -- shorter than the 120 days the Planning Commission recommended 5-3 on 10 Sep -- and a motion to drop the grace period entirely failed. NOT ESTABLISHED: the roll call by name, which parcels fall inside the 90-day window, and how many pending applications that window lets through.

At 6 p.m. the St. Joseph County Council takes up (1) expanding the AM General TIF District to include Microsoft's Granger data center, with borrowing authority of up to $4 million, postponed from August, and (2) a ban on new hyperscale data centers once the Amazon and Microsoft projects are finished, backed by five of nine members. Council President Bryan Tanner opposes the ban, citing lawsuit risk. OUTCOME: COUNCIL VOTED 6-3 TO START WRITING A HYPERSCALE DATA-CENTER BAN. On Sep 22 the St. Joseph County Council passed a resolution directing the Area Plan Commission to amend county zoning to bar new hyperscale data centers, per ABC57. It is not yet a ban: the rewritten ordinance must come back to the council, expected within about 60 days, for a final vote. The Amazon and Microsoft projects already under way are expected to be excluded. Sponsors were Republicans Amy Drake, Joe Thomas, Randy Figg and Andy Rutten; Council President Bryan Tanner had opposed it, citing lawsuit risk. The same night's agenda carried the AM General TIF expansion taking in Microsoft's Granger site -- its result has not been reported in anything read here. What to watch: the Area Plan Commission hearing on the amendment, then the council's final vote.

Sheriff John Smith filed formal notice on July 23, 2026 that Clearwater County would not renew its Flock Safety agreement, terminating for convenience at the September 22 expiry. The office said it would complete the contractual deactivation and equipment removal before that date, so this is the day the system is expected to be gone rather than a decision point. AS OF THE LAPSE DATE: the county's own release confirms the Sep 22 expiry and promises a removal timeline; no update or local report yet confirms the cameras are off or down. UPDATE: no report yet confirms the cameras came down. In August the county prosecutor issued an opinion that the Flock agreement is void to the extent it binds the county to a second year, because Idaho law bars the automatic extension and only the county commissioners can bind the county to debt (NBC Right Now). Sources name different sheriffs as the signer; not settled here.

THE SECOND STATE TO MOVE TO A DATA-CENTRE RATE CLASS, AND THE FIRST TO DO IT WITH A PACKAGE. California's Legislature closed its 2026 session in the last days of August by passing four data-centre bills that now sit on Governor Newsom's desk. SB 886 (Padilla) directs the Public Utilities Commission to establish a tariff covering interconnection, transmission, distribution and generation for data centres that connect at the transmission level with peak demand of at least 25 MW -- a separate rate class, so their costs are not spread across households. It passed along party lines. AB 2383 (Zbur), the Fair Share in Energy Act, requires separate generation and transmission tariffs for new large-load customers taking service on or after 1 January 2027. SB 1168 (McNerney) directs the Commission to assess rate structures ensuring data centres pay a reasonable share of transmission and distribution costs and their proportionate share of load growth, while easing pressure on residential ratepayers; the Senate concurred in Assembly amendments 38-0 on 30 August after a unanimous Assembly vote. SB 887 (Padilla) clarifies that the California Environmental Quality Act applies to data centres, which are not ministerial projects exempt from review, and offers accelerated review under the Environmental Leadership programme only to projects meeting added conditions on water, clean energy and paying full infrastructure costs. Two further Assembly bills require disclosure of energy and water use. SIGNED ON SEP 21, 2026. Newsom signed all four, plus AB 1577 (energy reporting) and Papan's AB 2469 and AB 2619 (water disclosure and water resources) -- seven in all (separate pushback record). WHO IS ON EACH SIDE, attributed: the Padilla bills are co-sponsored by The Utility Reform Network and Net-Zero California; a CalMatters analysis of state disclosures found utilities, tech companies and industry trade groups spent millions lobbying the Legislature in the first half of the year. WHAT THIS ADDS TO THE MAP: New York's Responsible Data Center Development Act, still unsigned, would create a rate class at 20 MW. California's SB 886 sets its trigger at 25 MW. California is now the largest state with data-centre rate separation. Local pressure preceded it: Commerce imposed a 45-day freeze and Monterey Park banned data centres by an 88 per cent ballot vote earlier in 2026, both already recorded here. NOT ESTABLISHED: chapter numbers and any signing message.

KALAMAZOO PAUSED NEW DATA-CENTRE APPLICATIONS ON SEP 21, 2026, for roughly a year. The City Commission adopted the moratorium and set a public hearing at its next meeting to write it into the zoning and development code, which staff say is what makes it enforceable under Michigan's zoning enabling law. Assistant City Planner Bobby Durkee said a year should be enough to write the guardrails. The city has used the same tool twice before, for digital billboards and marijuana zoning. NOT ESTABLISHED: the vote, the date of the code hearing, and whether a specific project (local TV has linked the debate to a 'Harbor Farmz' development) prompted it.

WAKULLA COUNTY MADE ITS DATA-CENTER BAN LAW ON SEP 21, 2026, UNANIMOUSLY. Commissioners had voted in June, also unanimously and to applause from a full room, to pursue a permanent ban rather than a pause; the September ordinance amends the land development code's definitions and adds a new section prohibiting data centers in unincorporated Wakulla. Residents who spoke in June focused on water contamination and pollution, and one said he was not anti-technology but wanted to be sure nothing new harmed the county's natural resources. Commissioner Russell said the board was of one mind about keeping data centers out of a small county while their effects are unclear. No project was pending, so this is prevention, not a response to an application. It is the permanent version of what neighbouring Leon County is still debating as an 18-month pause. NOT ESTABLISHED: whether the ordinance exempts small or accessory server rooms, since the text was not read.

JASPER COUNTY COUNCIL PASSED SECOND READING OF A ONE-YEAR PAUSE UNANIMOUSLY ON SEP 21, 2026, with the final vote due Oct 5. The moratorium covers data centers, data processing facilities and cryptocurrency mining in unincorporated Jasper County and can be extended in six-month steps. Council Chair Joey Rowell said the pending ordinance doctrine means the pause is already in effect while the county finishes adopting it, and tied the council's caution to the Savannah River, which supplies the county's water. The Coastal Conservation League spoke in support. No project is named as the trigger; residents raised noise, traffic, power use and environmental effects, and the county sits beside places that have already approved large builds. What to watch: the third reading on Oct 5 at 6 p.m. NOT ESTABLISHED: the outcome of that vote, and what standards the county intends to write during the year.

SIGNED, ALL SEVEN, ON SEP 21, 2026. Governor Newsom signed SB 886 (a separate rate class for transmission-connected data centres of 25 MW or more), SB 1168 (a PUC review of rate structures so data centres carry their share of grid costs), AB 2383 (separate generation and transmission tariffs for new large loads from Jan 1, 2027), SB 887 (CEQA applies to data centres -- KPBS reports it removes the ministerial route, and streamlined review is available only to projects committing to 100 percent renewable power within five years, water-efficient cooling and local community benefit agreements), and three disclosure and water bills: AB 1577, AB 2469 and AB 2619. His office called it the most comprehensive data-centre package in the country. KPBS ties SB 887 partly to the Imperial County fight, where a judge had just set aside a county approval for skipping environmental review. It makes California the largest state with a data-centre rate class. NOT ESTABLISHED: chapter numbers and any signing message.

THE MORATORIUM PASSED 5-1 -- WITH A SIZE LINE THE INDUSTRIAL-PARK OWNERS ASKED FOR. Spartanburg County Council adopted a one-year data-center moratorium on third and final reading on Sep 21, 2026, effective immediately, with Councilwoman Jessica Coker the lone no by FOX Carolina's count. Amendments from Chairman Mo Abusaft confine the pause to data centers above 65 MW of IT load. Smaller ones may proceed if they sit in an established industrial park or former industrial site, generate no power of their own beyond emergency backup, stay a mile from other data centers and sign development agreements on noise, light, glare and landscaping. Already-approved projects, including the Valara data center under construction, and cryptocurrency mining are exempt. Council member Grant DeShields said 65 MW was too high; Coker said no public-safety evidence had been presented. Executives of Pacolet Milliken and Lockhart Power had lobbied against a blanket pause, and got the carve-out. The third reading had been delayed from Aug 17 after residents filled the chambers. This is the same council that pulled support for the $3 billion TigerDC campus in February. NOT ESTABLISHED: how the seventh member voted.

THE ONLINE SAFETY ACT'S TOP TIER GOES TO COURT. On 10 Jul 2026 Ofcom published its register of categorised services, placing Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok, YouTube and Reddit in Category 1 -- the tier with the heaviest extra duties, including on fraudulent advertising and transparency about illegal content. By September Meta had appealed the Category 1 designation of Instagram and WhatsApp to the Upper Tribunal, arguing the rules should not reach private one-to-one or small-group messaging; it says it disputes Ofcom's interpretation, not the Act. Roblox and Quora are also contesting Category 1 status, and TikTok and X are resisting Ofcom information demands. Separately, Meta's May 2026 judicial review over basing fees and penalties on global turnover is reported to reach the High Court in October. Ofcom says it will robustly defend its decisions; government figures accuse the companies of stalling. Not established: tribunal hearing dates, and whether any duties are suspended meanwhile. ADD/REVISE: Ofcom has confirmed that four designations are under appeal -- Instagram and WhatsApp (Meta), Roblox and Quora. The grounds of the Roblox and Quora appeals and any hearing dates have not been published. Meta's separate judicial review of fees and penalties based on global turnover (AC-2025-LON-004500; permission granted 6 Mar 2026) is listed for 13-14 Oct 2026.

PARLIAMENT IS ASKING WHETHER ITS OWN ONLINE SAFETY ACT WORKS. The House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee opened an inquiry on 27 July 2026 into the implementation, enforcement and impact of the Online Safety Act 2023, putting 14 questions and saying plainly that SERIOUS CONCERNS HAVE BEEN RAISED THAT THE REGIME IS CURRENTLY INEFFECTIVE. Its two-part framing is what makes it worth recording: it asks whether OFCOM has been sufficiently effective and timely in enforcement, AND whether shortcomings in the LEGISLATION ITSELF are limiting the regime -- so the statute is under review by the chamber that passed it, not only the regulator under review by government. The principal illegal-content and child-protection duties came into force in 2025 and Ofcom moved into active monitoring and enforcement over the following year. THE REGULATOR IS REVIEWING ITSELF AT THE SAME TIME: Ofcom's chair Sir Ian Cheshire set out a review of the regulator in a 15 July 2026 letter to ministers -- its operating model, staffing, enforcement framework and powers -- due to conclude in early autumn 2026, with some recommendations possibly needing government support or new legislation. The sharper line that Ofcom may need more funds, new powers and a different operating model comes from his Financial Times interview, as reported by Computing. A regulator saying it lacks the powers to do the job is a different claim from critics saying it lacks the will, and both are on the record here. ONE INQUIRY, DEADLINE MOVED. The committee's own work page now gives 4pm on 21 September 2026 for written evidence, replacing the 7 September date in its launch notice; no separate Commons inquiry was found. That deadline has passed. Oral evidence so far: Children's Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza (1 Sep) and Ofcom officials Mark Bunting, Suzanne Cater and Oliver Griffiths (15 Sep); a further session is listed for 13 October. No report date is set. WHY IT MATTERS BEYOND BRITAIN: the OSA is the most-cited model for age-assurance and platform-duty legislation on this map, invoked in US state bills and in the EU debate. A finding by its own parliament that the regime is not working would travel.

ONE CAMERA COMES DOWN IN CAREY, AND THE COUNTY CONTRACT WILL NOT AUTO-RENEW. Blaine County Sheriff Morgan Ballis said on Sep 21, 2026 that the Flock reader in Carey will be removed because the city's officials and residents were never asked; it was put on state transportation land inside city limits. The county runs 16 readers at about $60,000 a year under a Sept 2024 to March 2027 contract paid from civil forfeiture money, so it never went through a public budget vote. Ballis, who said he inherited the contract, will send written notice to stop it renewing automatically, and says any future plate-reader plan will go to the county commissioners with public input. The other 15 cameras keep running until March 2027. NOT ESTABLISHED: when the Carey camera comes down.

Local group Richmond DSA is organizing against ALPR surveillance. THE MAYOR CUT RETENTION TO SEVEN DAYS AND ORDERED A REVIEW; THE 99 CAMERAS STAY ON. Richmond Mayor Danny Avula said on Sep 21, 2026 that the city needs to reevaluate its relationship with Flock, ordered police to keep plate data 7 days instead of Virginia's 21-day maximum, and called for an evaluation of the technology, resident input and a review of oversight. The contract runs to Jun 30, 2027, and at least 20 other Virginia localities have ended or paused theirs, per VPM. Councilor Reva Trammell said she would rather remove the cameras. Earlier in 2026 an RPD sergeant broke state law by sending a Flock image to the FBI; prosecutors declined to charge. NOT established: when the review reports, and whether council will vote before the 2027 end date.

COUNCIL SENT THE FLOCK REVIEW TO COMMITTEE 5-3 -- NO DEADLINE UNTIL MID-2027. At its September 2026 meeting the City Council voted to refer Councilman Brandon Jenson's resolution seeking information on the city's plate-reader cameras to the Plans and Policies Committee rather than hold a public hearing. Mayor Jeff Schrag, who moved the referral, said a committee could follow up on questions as they arise; Jenson said it took away the public's chance to weigh in at the start and that he learned of the motion three hours beforehand. Flock Out SGF's Isaac Protiva said a member had described committee as where bills go to die. Two people were cited for disrupting the meeting. NOT ESTABLISHED: the full roll call, the camera count, and when the committee first takes it up.

Township Committee public hearing and second reading of Ordinance 2026-3536, prohibiting data centres in all zones. Outcome not yet confirmed.

OUTCOME: PASSED 5-1 -- BUT ONLY FOR DATA CENTERS OVER 65 MW. Spartanburg County Council adopted a one-year moratorium on final reading on Sep 21, 2026, with Jessica Coker the lone no (FOX Carolina count). Amendments from Chairman Mo Abusaft let smaller data centers proceed if they sit in an industrial park or former industrial site, cannot generate their own power beyond emergency backup, stay a mile from other data centers and sign a development agreement on noise, light and landscaping. Already-approved projects, including the Valara data center under construction, and crypto mining are exempt. Council member Grant DeShields said the 65 MW line was too high. The two industrial-park owners who lobbied against a blanket pause got the carveout they wanted. NOT ESTABLISHED: the seventh member's vote.

OUTCOME: SIGNED -- ALL SEVEN, ON SEP 21. Governor Newsom signed SB 886 (a rate class for transmission-connected data centres of 25 MW or more), SB 1168 (rate structures), AB 2383 (large-load tariffs from 2027), SB 887 (CEQA applies to data centres; KPBS reports it ends the ministerial route and limits streamlined review to projects committing to 100 percent renewables within five years, efficient cooling and community benefit agreements), and AB 1577, AB 2469 and AB 2619 on energy and water disclosure. No vetoes were named. NOT ESTABLISHED: chapter numbers and any signing message.

ONE INQUIRY, DEADLINE MOVED. The House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee's inquiry into the Online Safety Act -- launched 27 July 2026 with written evidence due 5pm on 7 September -- now lists 4pm on 21 September 2026 as its deadline on its own work page. The two dates belong to the same Lords inquiry; no separate Commons inquiry was found. That deadline has now passed. The committee has already taken oral evidence from Children's Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza (1 Sep) and from Ofcom officials Mark Bunting, Suzanne Cater and Oliver Griffiths (15 Sep); a further session is listed for 13 October with witnesses to be confirmed. No report date is set.

RETENTION CUT PLANNED: 30 DAYS TO 14, THEN 7. Haysville Police Chief Jeff Whitfield plans to shorten how long the city keeps data from its eight Flock cameras, bought in 2022 -- to 14 days by the end of September 2026 and 7 days by the end of the year, the Wichita Eagle reported on Sep 20. He cited privacy concerns raised at City Council meetings and local misuse cases in which officers tracked former partners, and described it as meeting residents in the middle. The cameras stay. The change is the chief's, not a council ordinance, so a future chief could reverse it. Next door, Wichita faces a state-constitutional lawsuit over its roughly 200 cameras. NOT ESTABLISHED: whether the 14-day setting is in force; Flock's transparency portal for Haysville would show it.

MANCHESTER REVERSED ITSELF AND BANNED DATA CENTRES, UNANIMOUSLY. The Ocean County township council adopted Ordinance 26-48 on second reading in mid-September 2026 (reported 18 Sep), undoing an earlier decision that had let data centres into the township's redevelopment plan. The ban was introduced in late August. Council President Michele Zolezi said data centres are not permitted in Manchester, full stop. The ordinance takes effect after a 20-day wait. Residents who came to the meeting at Manchester Township High School were not reassured: they asked whether a developer could file during those 20 days, whether a lawsuit would follow, why the text has no definition of a data centre, and whether a moratorium should be layered on top. A use variance before the Zoning Board remains possible under state land-use law. NOT ESTABLISHED: the exact meeting date, the roll call by name, and which redevelopment project had included data centres. Ask the township clerk for the adopted ordinance and roll call.

THE OHIO SUPREME COURT KEPT WILMINGTON'S DATA-CENTRE RULES OFF THE NOV 3 BALLOT ON SEP 18, 2026. Residents led by Quintin Koger Kidd had collected enough signatures for a citizen ordinance setting limits on noise, light, emissions, generator testing, water use and heat, with fines of $5,000 to $10,000 a day. The Clinton County Board of Elections refused to certify it, unanimously, in August, and the court agreed: the ordinance let residents sue data-centre operators directly, and the court held a city cannot create that right. Court News Ohio reports the vote as 5-1-1; one outlet reports 6-1. Kidd says a revised version is already being drafted. The fight is not over: four referendums on rezonings for another data-centre project ARE on the Nov 3 ballot. NOT ESTABLISHED: the developer behind those rezonings, and the status of residents' federal lawsuits.

BADGES PULLED, THEN A LAWSUIT. President Trump announced on Sep 18, 2026 that CNN, MS NOW and Politico were banned from covering the White House. The next day, Saturday Sep 19, their correspondents' passes were deactivated, they were stopped at the gate, and CNN lost its television-pool slot. The other pool networks declined to fill in, so pool coverage of the President's UN trip stopped. On Sep 21 the three outlets and reporters Betsy Klein, Akayla Gardner and Cheyenne Haslett sued in federal court in Washington (No. 1:26-cv-02754), calling it viewpoint discrimination. Judge Timothy Kelly -- who restored CNN reporter Jim Acosta's pass in 2018 -- set a hearing for Sep 23 at 3:30 p.m. ET on emergency relief. The same day AP, Bloomberg, The New York Times, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post issued a joint statement through CPJ defending the three. Vice President Vance says the outlets lost special access, not the right to report. Not established: how the court rules, and whether the exclusion widens. UPDATE 22 Sep: the other TV networks joined the protest. ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC suspended television pool coverage of the President's events, saying no administration should restrict a news organisation because it objects to its reporting. The same evening, 21 Sep, the White House launched 'Trump TV', a round-the-clock YouTube stream of administration content. Secretary of State Rubio defended the ban as removing workspace access, not shutting anyone down. Judge Kelly's hearing is 23 Sep; not established: whether he grants emergency relief.

FROM OCT 1, FOREIGN JOURNALISTS MUST OPEN THEIR SOCIAL MEDIA TO GET A US VISA. A State Department notice dated Sep 18, 2026 says applicants for I visas -- the category for foreign media representatives -- along with TN and TD applicants, must set every social media profile to public so consular officers can review it. The department frames every visa decision as a national-security decision. The plan surfaced in early August when Reuters reported an internal memo extending 'online presence vetting' to journalists; the start date was unclear until the Sep 18 notice. The same rule already covers students, exchange visitors and H-1B workers. What it means for a reporter: their published and private commentary about the United States becomes material in the decision on whether they may come and cover it. Not established: what content officers are told to treat as disqualifying, and how many journalists are refused.

TWO INDIANAPOLIS OFFICERS SENT TO THE MERIT BOARD FOR FIRING. IMPD Chief Tanya Terry has recommended that two officers be fired for misusing Flock plate readers; the Civilian Police Merit Board will decide. The first used the cameras for personal reasons; the second surfaced when that case widened into a broader review in August 2026. Both lost police powers. IMPD now requires a case number and offence code for every search, stronger audits, and a signed acknowledgment from every officer who keeps access, and says it would back state legislation. No criminal referral has been reported. NOT established: the officers' names, how many searches, and whose plates. Ask whether the case numbers are checked against real cases -- Alexandria, Virginia found dozens of searches where they were missing.

MORE THAN 1,000 LOOKUPS, ONE MISDEMEANOR. Former Braintree detective Mark Sherrick, 55, faces a criminal harassment charge, a misdemeanor, with arraignment set for Sep 29, 2026. Court documents allege he ran Flock more than 1,000 times on his ex-girlfriend's car after their 2024 breakup. They also allege he put a GPS tracker on her car and stood in her yard before dawn. Investigators matched tracker alerts in his department email to her movements. He retired in April 2025 while the investigation was under way, and the charge came about 17 months later. Braintree says it holds officers to the highest standards of conduct. Not established: why the database searches carry no separate charge, and whether Braintree audited Flock use by anyone else. Ask the prosecutor's office and Braintree PD.

Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, wrote to Flock CEO Garrett Langley on Aug 26, 2026 opening an inquiry into the company's collection, retention and dissemination of camera data, with a Sept 8 deadline to produce documents. Citing Flock's own figures, the letter describes about 120,000 cameras across 49 states and more than 20 billion vehicle scans a month, and argues Congress never authorised such a network, leaving the company's internal policies as the only practical safeguard. WHAT MAKES THIS DIFFERENT FROM A STATEMENT is the specificity of the demands: every confirmed instance of misuse since Jan 1 2021, what a user must enter to justify a search, the restrictions on search purpose, the parameters for statewide and nationwide searches, camera placement, accuracy and security, contracts with local governments, and the company's revenue sources and investors. Flock spokesperson Paris Lewbel said the company had received the letter and would respond. NOT ESTABLISHED: whether the documents will be produced. Axios reported the letter is a request and that a subpoena would be the next step if it is refused; none has been issued. Reporting also notes no bill has been introduced in Congress to ban ALPRs outright. The letter cites St Charles County, Missouri, which is on this map. UPDATE, 14 SEP 2026: THE DEADLINE PASSED ON 8 SEPTEMBER AND NO PUBLIC REPORTING ESTABLISHES WHETHER THE DOCUMENTS WERE PRODUCED. Searching six days after the date returns only coverage from the announcement week. Flock said at the time it would respond; nothing confirms it did, nothing reports a refusal, and no subpoena has been reported. A NON-EVENT IS STILL A FINDING and this map should say so rather than leave the record reading as though the deadline is still ahead. TWO DETAILS ADDED FROM THE SENATOR'S OWN RELEASE, which is now the primary source here rather than the news accounts of it. First, the letter did NOT mention or threaten a subpoena -- reporting noted Hawley COULD seek one, which is not the same thing, and the request was framed as an opportunity to cooperate voluntarily. Second, the letter ties the data question to MONEY: Flock's roughly $8.3 billion valuation creates pressure to monetise what it holds, and Hawley points to uncertainty over how the company or its customers might sell or repurpose driver information. That is a commercial-use concern from a Senate chair, and it is the same argument the Idaho tort claims make about AI training data, arriving from a different direction. The letter also cites a Milwaukee officer alleged to have searched his girlfriend's plate, alongside the St Charles County case already noted here. UPDATE, 22 SEP 2026: THE INQUIRY WIDENED TO THE WHOLE INDUSTRY AND BECAME A HEARING. On Sep 3 Hawley sent document demands to Flock's three main competitors -- Axon, Motorola Solutions and Verkada -- with a Sep 16 deadline, citing among other cases a Milwaukee officer who ran 124 personal plate searches. On Sep 18 he invited all four CEOs to testify on Sep 23 at a subcommittee hearing titled Always Watching: Flock's Nationwide AI Surveillance Network. That matters for the vendor-swap pattern on this map: a city leaving Flock for Axon or Motorola is now leaving one company under Senate inquiry for another. STILL NOT ESTABLISHED: whether Flock produced the Sep 8 documents, whether any CEO will appear, and whether a subpoena follows -- none has been mentioned.

INTERIOR IS BUYING SIX CLEARVIEW AI ACCOUNTS FOR THE BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS -- AND ITS OWN PRIVACY ASSESSMENT SAYS THE TOOL WAS ALREADY RUNNING. On 18 September 2026 the Interior Department posted notice of a firm-fixed-price purchase of six Clearview AI accounts for the BIA Missing and Murdered Unit, for missing and murdered Indigenous persons, trafficking and child-exploitation cases; Biometric Update reports it as sole-source, with rival capability statements due 22 September. Interior's privacy impact assessment, submitted for review 23 January 2026, lists Clearview as operational at BIA's Office of Justice Services, matching uploaded photos against faces scraped from the public internet. It requires a human check before any enforcement action and says Clearview keeps no personal data. Interior earlier told federal auditors BIA had no facial recognition use planned through 2023. Not established: the contract value, when BIA began using Clearview, how many searches it has run, and whether tribal nations were consulted. Coordinates are Washington.

MILLBURN'S PLANNERS SAID NO TO A BAN, NARROWLY. On 17 Sep 2026 the Planning Board found the Township Committee's draft data-centre prohibition inconsistent with the master plan, and suggested a limit instead: accessory computing capped at 20% of a building or 10,000 square feet and 2 megawatts of dedicated capacity. A subcommittee will study technology and utility impacts on a short timetable. In New Jersey a governing body can still adopt an ordinance the planning board calls inconsistent, but it must state its reasons, so the next move is the committee's. NOT ESTABLISHED: the board's vote count and whether the committee will proceed, amend or drop the ban.

BRADLEY COUNTY'S DATA-CENTRE RULES ARE BEING TESTED IN COURT. On Apr 20, 2026 the commission, declining residents' calls for an outright ban, confined data centres to its special-impact industrial district and required 3,000 feet from any home, school or church -- rules local reporting called nearly impossible to meet. On Sep 17 SDCL Tennessee Propco, which paid about $19.9 million in 2025 for 306 acres in the Hiwassee River Industrial Park for 'Project MidSpan', sued in Bradley County Chancery Court. It says the rules amount to a countywide ban, were passed in breach of the Open Meetings Act, and single it out. Its nearest building would sit about 1,700 feet from Walker Valley High School. NOT ESTABLISHED: the April vote, the county's answer, and how the second large proposal, 'Project River', fits the rules.

EMPLOYMENT AS EVIDENCE. Police raided the Istanbul offices of the Etkin News Agency (ETHA) on 3 Feb 2026, and on 5 Feb editors Nadiye Gurbuz and Pinar Gayip and reporter Elif Bayburt were jailed pending trial on charges of membership of the MLKP, a left-wing group Turkiye lists as terrorist. According to CPJ's review of the indictments, the case against them rests on their working for ETHA and attending certain public events. All three deny membership. Gayip and Bayburt have since been released pending trial; Gurbuz is still in prison more than seven months later, the court saying not all witnesses have been heard. Trials are set for 7 Dec (Gayip), 8 Dec (Gurbuz) and 10 Dec 2026 (Bayburt). The Istanbul chief prosecutor's office did not answer CPJ. Not established: which court is hearing the cases.

A WORD FOR HOW HE TOOK POWER IS NOW A BROADCAST OFFENCE. Guinea's media regulator, the High Authority of Communication, suspended France 24 on Sep 17, 2026 because a presenter called President Mamadi Doumbouya a 'putschist' -- he took power in a 2021 coup before winning the December 2025 election. The regulator said the channel ignored its order to stop using terms it considers an affront to the head of state's dignity. A day earlier it withdrew the accreditation of Jeune Afrique correspondent Diawo Barry for reporting it called unbalanced. No end date was set for either measure. Not established: how long the ban lasts and whether it reaches France 24's online output.

TWO BIPARTISAN HOUSE BILLS NOW TARGET PLATE READERS, AND ONE USES HIGHWAY MONEY AS THE LEVER. The NO FLOCK Act, H.R. 10366, from Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) and Michael Cloud (R-TX), would require every state to limit ALPR use to specified public-safety and toll-enforcement purposes or lose 10 percent of its federal surface-transportation funds each year after a two-year phase-in -- the same mechanism Congress used for the drinking age. A second bill, H.R. 9716, introduced July 15 by Rep. Keith Self (R-TX) and joined by Idaho's Russ Fulcher, would make federal agents get a warrant before tapping state and local camera data. Both follow Senator Hawley's inquiry into Flock. Neither has had a committee vote. NOT ESTABLISHED: the NO FLOCK Act's exact introduction date and committee referral, and what counts as a public-safety purpose -- the text will decide whether stalking-style searches are actually barred. WHAT TO WATCH: committee referral and cosponsor count on congress.gov.

SCOTLAND SAID NO TO A MORATORIUM AND YES TO A PAUSE THAT DOES NOT BIND. On 16 September 2026 MSPs rejected the Scottish Greens' call to halt hyperscale data-centre applications. The SNP government's amendment, rejecting a moratorium but requiring environmental impact assessments and national guidance, passed 72-32 with 16 abstentions. Labour's amendment from Paul Sweeney, saying no planning or consenting decisions should be made until that guidance is finished, passed 94-26. Minister Hannah Mary Goodlad said a moratorium was unnecessary. The pause is a statement of Parliament's view, not law: councils could still decide. What did change in law is two ministerial directions -- from 19 August councils must notify ministers of any new data-centre application within seven days of validation, and a second direction announced on 16 September, the day of the vote, requires a full environmental impact assessment for every new data centre over 50 MW. Whether it reaches applications already lodged, such as DataVita's DV4 at Chapelhall, is not stated in the government's release. Guidance is due by the end of 2026. The first tests: the Larbert application near Falkirk, with over 7,000 objections and a 4 October determination deadline, and DataVita's DV4 at Chapelhall.

THE MAYOR BANNED STAFF DATA-CENTRE NDAS, AND CALLED IT SYMBOLIC. South Bend Mayor James Mueller signed an executive order on 16 Sep 2026 barring city staff from signing non-disclosure agreements about data centers. He said the ban is more symbolic than practical, arguing no information was actually withheld because of such agreements, and said he learned only recently that the public works director and city engineer had signed NDAs with Amazon in 2023. Council members Oliver Davis Jr. and Sherry Bolden-Simpson have filed their own bill to ban the agreements; it gets a first reading on 28 Sep. Mueller says he will veto it, on the ground that the council cannot dictate how the executive branch handles contracts. NOT ESTABLISHED: the order's text, whether other NDAs exist, and how the council votes. Ask the clerk for the 28 Sep agenda.

BANNED OUTRIGHT, 3-0. Calexico's City Council on 16 Sep 2026 approved a zoning amendment expressly prohibiting data centres anywhere in the city, with two members absent. Data centres were already not a permitted use -- the city manager said so -- but the council, which chose on 1 Jul to pursue a permanent ban instead of a moratorium at Council Member Diana Nuricumbo's urging, wanted the prohibition in writing where a future developer's lawyers would have to face it. Calexico sits a few miles from the Imperial County project a judge set aside this month (see pb-ca-imperial); Imperial, Calipatria and the county itself have all paused or moved to ban. NOT ESTABLISHED: whether the 16 Sep vote was the ordinance's final reading or its introduction.

COUNCIL BANNED DATA CENTRES 6-1. On 16 Sep 2026 Cumberland's Town Council amended its zoning ordinance to list data centres as a prohibited use anywhere in town. At-large Councilor Peter Bradley was the lone vote against. No project had been proposed; the council acted after watching another Rhode Island town struggle when a developer arrived before the town had any rules. Neighbouring Smithfield acted earlier (see dc-ri-smithfield-data-center-ban). NOT ESTABLISHED: Bradley's stated reason, the ordinance number, and whether the ban has a size threshold or exemptions. SOURCING: the only report read, from Uprise RI, says it was produced by having software summarise the meeting transcript; the vote has not been checked against the council's minutes.

ONE YEAR FOR A POST, THEN TERRORISM CHARGES FOR VERIFYING A LEAK. Tunisian journalist Zied el-Heni, founder of Tunisian Press, was arrested on 24 Apr 2026 and on 7 May a Tunis court sentenced him to one year under Article 86 of the Telecommunications Code over a post calling the jailing of Khalifa Guesmi a judicial conspiracy -- Guesmi was later acquitted. Note the law: this is the telecoms code, not Decree-Law 54. While serving that term he has been charged on four terrorism-related counts over a 2023 leaked audio recording involving former Ennahda official Mondher Lounissi; el-Heni has said he contacted people in the recording to verify it was authentic before reporting. His family says the charges carry a possible life sentence. He is due in court on the terrorism case on 25 Sep 2026 and on separate corruption allegations from his municipal council service on 2 Oct. CPJ calls it prosecution of routine journalistic verification. Not established: the specific terrorism provisions and the outcome of any appeal.

CITIZENSHIP AS THE PENALTY FOR A FILM. On Sep 16, 2026 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government would bring a bill to revoke the citizenship of Israelis who 'defame' soldiers abroad, naming as its targets Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, the Israeli makers of NAZA, a documentary on military conduct drawn from reporting by Sicha Mekomit, +972 Magazine and The Guardian. A companion bill would raise defamation damages. Neither has passed. The culture minister had already threatened revocation and the army chief said military lawyers were studying legal action. The next day protesters gathered outside the filmmakers' family homes and activists broke into Sicha Mekomit's offices. Not established: the bill's text or when the Knesset will take it up.

FREED, AND PUT ON A BUS OUT OF THE COUNTRY THE SAME DAY. After US Special Envoy John Coale visited Minsk on Mar 19, 2026, Belarus announced the release of 250 political prisoners. FIFTEEN WERE DEPORTED TO LITHUANIA THAT DAY, among them journalist Katsiaryna Bakhvalava (Andreyeva) and blogger Eduard Palchys; the rest of those released stayed in Belarus. BAJ chairperson Andrei Bastunets said the deported were expelled on unclear legal grounds, without documents or explanation. THE PATTERN PREDATES THE MARCH RELEASE. Larysa Shchyrakova was deported rather than sent home: she was among 10 journalists and 42 other political prisoners taken to Lithuania on 11 Sep 2025 in the US-brokered release, four months before her term was due to end on 13 Jan 2026 (earlier reporting gave 13 Jan 2026 as a release date; it was the scheduled end of her sentence). Arrested in December 2022 and sentenced in August 2023 to three and a half years, she has said she has nowhere to stay, was not allowed to say goodbye to her mother when she died, and cannot visit the grave. Iryna Slaunikava, who had served two years and eight months with four months left, told Reuters she wants to go home and cannot imagine her life without Belarus. Some of those freed publicly asked to return and be reunited with their families. BAJ published a report on Jul 28, 2026 examining the practice and its legality under national and international law, and describes ENFORCED EXILE AS A METHOD OF ELIMINATING INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM FROM INSIDE THE COUNTRY rather than as clemency. THIS ALSO EXPLAINS A NUMBER THAT LOOKS LIKE A DISPUTE AND IS NOT. Counts of imprisoned Belarusian media workers fall through 2026: BAJ recorded 28 at the start of the year, CPJ at least 23 in April, and the IFJ and EFJ citing BAJ put it at 21 in August. That is not a definitional disagreement between trackers -- IT IS THE SAME FIGURE DECLINING, and it declines partly because people are being released into expulsion. A falling prisoner count is being produced by emptying the country of journalists, not by ending the prosecutions. THE PROSECUTIONS CONTINUE: on Feb 26, 2026 a Brest court convicted Uladzimir Yanukevich, 66, and Andrei Pakalenka, 44, former managers of the BAR24 news portal, of TREASON, sentencing them to 14 and 12 years after a closed-door trial. Six journalists were convicted within a single week. BAJ itself was designated extremist in 2023. THE PATTERN CONTINUED IN SEPTEMBER. On Sep 16, 2026, after US envoy John Coale met Lukashenko, Belarus freed 25 prisoners; three were journalists -- Andrei Aliaksandrau, serving 14 years, Dzmitry Navazhylau (6) and Kiryl Pazniak (3.5) -- and BAJ says all three were deported to Lithuania. CPJ now counts 18 journalists still jailed, down from BAJ's 28 at the start of the year: the same falling figure this record explains. BAJ's report names 14 journalists and two bloggers expelled across four 2025 operations (Feb 12, Jun 21, Sep 11, Dec 13) and two more media workers in March 2026. It concludes the practice amounts to deportation and persecution -- crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute -- and notes that Belarusian law does not allow a citizen to be expelled at all. One man who refused, Mikalai Statkevich, was sent back to prison on Sep 11, 2025 and freed only after a stroke in February 2026.

TWO CASES, AND TWO-THIRDS OF USERS LOST ACCESS. Texas City police disclosed in mid-September 2026 two possible misuses of the department's Flock plate readers: a civilian employee, who has been disciplined, and a sergeant, whose case is still under investigation. Interim Chief James Patterson then cut the number of people who can search the system by about two-thirds, leaving only detectives and supervisors of sergeant rank and above; every search now needs three justification fields, including a case number; every user is audited monthly; and all staff, the chief included, went through an initial audit. The city runs 26 fixed Flock readers and two mobile units, in use since 2023. NOT ESTABLISHED: who the two employees are, what they searched, the sergeant's outcome, and whether either case was referred for prosecution.

MISSOURI'S GOVERNOR PUT A 30-DAY DELETION RULE ON PLATE READERS BY EXECUTIVE ORDER. Gov. Mike Kehoe signed Executive Order 26-18 on Sep 16, 2026, directing the Department of Public Safety to set safeguards for state agencies and state-funded police: most plate data deleted within 30 days, vendors barred from selling or sharing Missouri data, use limited to criminal-justice and lifesaving purposes, no facial recognition bolted on, and misuse reported for possible loss of an officer's licence. Flock is named. Kehoe tied it to constitutional rights; his public-safety director still calls the readers valuable. THE LIMITS: other local agencies are only asked to comply voluntarily, no compliance date is stated, and an executive order can be rescinded by the next governor -- which is why it asks the Legislature to write it into law. Rep. Jeff Vernetti, who filed a statewide ban in 2025, expects dozens of bills in 2027. Ask DPS when the rules issue and which agencies they bind.

A MAYOR RESIGNED RATHER THAN PRESIDE OVER IT. Florence Laurent, mayor of Etrechet near Chateauroux, quit on 15 September 2026, after four of her council colleagues had already resigned, over Google's plan for a roughly 500 MW data centre on 195 hectares of the Ozans business zone. The land sale was decided not by the commune but by Chateauroux Metropole in June 2025; the resigning officials cited PFAS, visual impact, traffic, property values and the way local views were handled. A residents' collective, Ozans dire non, is organising against it. Google's subsidiary Tricolore Computing plans a first building in 2028-29 and seven to nine more from 2031. The next step people can take part in: grid operator RTE's public consultation on about EUR 300 million of grid reinforcement, 28 September to 22 November 2026. The exact date of the first four resignations differs between reports (10 September vs 14-15 September).

LINDEN PUT A CITYWIDE BAN ON THE TABLE ON 15 SEP 2026. Mayor Derek Armstead and Council President Michele Yamakaitis brought an ordinance to the Union County city's council prohibiting AI data centres in every zoning district. The city posted notice of Ordinance 70-53, adding data centres to its list of prohibited uses (Chapter 31-20.25), on 18 Sep. Officials cited electricity and water demand, noise, emissions and strain on local infrastructure against few permanent jobs; no specific project is named as the trigger. The city says it consulted the youth group Climate Revolution Action Network, which drafts many of these ordinances. NOT ESTABLISHED: the first-reading vote and the date of the public hearing and final vote. The city clerk's published notice of Ordinance 70-53 will give the hearing date.

GLOUCESTER TOWNSHIP (CAMDEN COUNTY) ADOPTED AN ABSOLUTE PROHIBITION ON 15 SEP 2026, unanimously, with nobody speaking at the hearing. Ordinance O-26-16 bars commercial, industrial or large-scale data centres in every zoning district, overlay zone and redevelopment area. THE REDEVELOPMENT CLAUSE IS THE PART TO NOTE. The Pinelands Alliance argues that towns can let a banned use back in through redevelopment plans, and that neighbours are not individually notified when those plans are adopted. An ordinance that names redevelopment areas closes that route unless a later plan overrides it. A resident had earlier asked about a proposed data-centre listing in the township, and the administration was told to follow up. NOT ESTABLISHED: how 'large-scale' is defined or whether there is a size threshold, the roll-call names, and what the listing was. The source is an automated summary of the meeting video, so confirm against the adopted ordinance.

RALEIGH'S LEADERS AGREED ON SEP 15, 2026 TO DRAFT A SIX-MONTH DATA-CENTER MORATORIUM, with a public hearing set for Oct 6. The city attorney is writing it. Mayor Janet Cowell described it as a freeze to study land, water and power demands and to lower the temperature of an argument that has been running across the Triangle -- Durham city and county both paused in August. It would make the state capital one of the largest cities on this map to pause. NOT ESTABLISHED: whether a vote was taken on Sep 15, and the outcome on Oct 6.

ORANGE COUNTY'S COMMISSION SAID YES IN PRINCIPLE ON SEP 15, 2026, AND NOT YET IN LAW. Commissioners backed a temporary moratorium on large AI data centers but sent it to staff to study zoning, power, water and noise, and will revisit it in early December. The push came from residents -- more than 800 emails and nearly 2,000 petition signatures -- before any developer had applied. Commissioner Kelly Martinez Semrad argued a pause lets the county choose its rules first. NOT ESTABLISHED: a vote count, the length of any pause, and whether an application lands before December.

LEON COUNTY IS ONE VOTE FROM AN 18-MONTH DATA-CENTER PAUSE. Commissioners voted unanimously on July 14, 2026 to pursue it -- Bill Proctor stretched it from one year to 18 months -- and unanimously advanced the ordinance on Sep 15. The final public hearing is Oct 13. It covers 'large-load customer facilities', data centers included, while the county writes its first rules on compatibility, water and power. Nick Maddox framed his vote as about siting near homes, not an absolute objection. The county surrounds Tallahassee, whose own commission rejected a moratorium 3-2 in June on the ground that city land rules already exclude data centers -- so the pause now being written covers the land outside the city. Neighbouring Wakulla, Jackson and Franklin counties already restrict them. NOT ESTABLISHED: the outcome on Oct 13.

PROSECUTED FOR FORWARDING. Tresor Muntu, a journalist with Centrale Radio Television, was detained in Likasi on Sep 15, 2026 and moved to Kasapa Central Prison in Lubumbashi on charges of criminal defamation and publishing false news. His act: sharing, in five WhatsApp groups, a post on X written by another journalist, Patrick Lokala, that accused the vice-president of Haut-Katanga's provincial assembly of using her influence to protect her sister in a land dispute. He faces up to five years. Not established: a court date, or whether the author of the post is being pursued too.

ARRESTED FOR WHO SHE WORKS FOR. Israeli forces detained Naqaa Hamed, a US citizen and Palestinian journalist who reports for Iran's Press TV and Turkey's TRT, at the Tuqu checkpoint near Bethlehem on Sep 15, 2026, as she returned from covering the siege of Qusra village. Police say she is being investigated for trading with the enemy, incitement and support for Iran; military sources pointed to her work for the Iranian broadcaster as the basis. A military court in Salem extended her detention to Sep 23. Online campaigns had called for her arrest beforehand. Not established: whether she has been charged, and what the US government has done for a detained citizen.

AN LGBTQ+ NEWS SITE TREATED AS OBSCENITY. In an operation police code-named 'My Family is Safe', Turkish courts blocked the websites of Kaos GL, the country's largest LGBTQ+ rights group and news outlet, and jailed seven of its board members on obscenity charges. Journalist Tugba Tekerek, a Kaos GL contributor, was detained in Istanbul on Sep 13, 2026 and arrested in Ankara on Sep 15 pending trial -- over an article about elections in Georgia written two years earlier. CPJ counts at least 54 people jailed in other provinces and more than 126 detained at protests in Ankara and Istanbul, among them two reporters covering them. Not established: a trial date, or which content in the Georgia article is alleged to be obscene.

SOUTH AFRICA'S POLICE MAY GET FACE RECOGNITION IN THEIR BODY CAMERAS. The State Information Technology Agency has put out a tender for police body-worn and dashboard cameras that must include facial recognition, both to unlock the devices and within the video analytics. Bids close on 29 September 2026 (tender RFB-3286-2026-ERP-496011, Gauteng). The tender gives no budget or camera count and does not say whether footage will be matched live against watchlists. Biometric Update notes the Protection of Personal Information Act appears unlikely to cover police body cameras. Ask SITA and SAPS what database faces would be matched against and under what legal authority.

AN EMPLOYEE RESIGNED, AND THE SHERIFF BROUGHT IN AN OUTSIDE AUDITOR. Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong said in mid-September 2026 that an audit turned up questionable activity in a sheriff's office employee's Flock search and that the employee resigned. He did not say what was searched or whether the case was referred for criminal review. Two changes followed: an independent auditor, paid outside the department, will check whether searches were justified and tied to real cases, and the office opened a public transparency portal. Furlong said the old arrangement amounted to the agency overseeing itself, which he called never a good thing. Carson City has about 37 Flock cameras and keeps data 30 days. NOT ESTABLISHED: the employee's role, the searches, and any referral.

574 SEARCHES OF THE SAME TWO PLATES, LOGGED AS 'SUS'. An audit of Flock logs at the Indian River County, Florida Sheriff's Office found Sgt. John Finnegan, 41, ran the same two license plates 574 times between March and October 2025, entering reasons such as 'SUS' and 'daytime search for best result'. He was put on paid administrative leave in September 2026 -- nearly a year after the searches stopped. The sheriff's office under Sheriff Eric Flowers says its audit had already begun and is continuing. The free-text reason field is the lesson: Flock accepted a three-letter abbreviation as justification hundreds of times and nobody looked until 2026. A Vero Beach city officer is separately under investigation. NOT established: whose plates they were, whether prosecutors are involved, and the outcome.

MOUNT VERNON WILL LET ITS FLOCK CONTRACT RUN OUT ON 25 OCT 2026 AND THEN BAR PLATE READERS FOR A YEAR. City Council gave first reading on 15 Sep to legislation, supported by the police and the administration, that lets the contract expire unrenewed and starts a 12-month moratorium on plate-reader cameras, including anyone else's camera on city property. Safety-Service Director Tanner Salyers cited public opposition, constitutional concerns, uncertain federal grant money and the expectation that Ohio will legislate on plate readers in 2027. The city ran eight Flock cameras; the county sheriff had already turned down 17 grant-funded ones in August. NOT ESTABLISHED: the final council vote, whether stored plate data will be deleted, and whether police can still query private Flock cameras. Watch the second reading.

COUNCIL CANCELLED FLOCK 4-1, AND THE NEXT DAY POLICE DISCLOSED TWO OFFICERS HAD MISUSED IT. Eastpointe, Michigan's City Council voted 4-1 on Sep 15, 2026 to end its Flock plate-reader contract over privacy concerns; Councilman Rob Baker was the lone no. On Sep 16 the police department said two officers had misused the system -- one for personal reasons, one breaking policy during a real investigation. Chief Corey Haines had argued to keep it, crediting the cameras with 39 solved crimes in 2024, 54 in 2025 and 46 so far in 2026, and had already cut retention from 30 days to 7. Mayor Michael Klinefelt called it a pause until proper safeguards exist -- so a return is possible. NOT established: whether the cameras are physically down, and what happened to the two officers. The city had prepaid roughly $52,000 a year through May 2027.

EL PASO'S COUNCIL VOTED ON SEP 15, 2026 TO ORDER FLOCK TO TAKE DOWN ITS CAMERAS AND TO LIMIT FUTURE PLATE-READER CONTRACTS. El Paso Matters counts 150 cameras. The deadline is reported two ways: 90 days in El Paso Matters and El Paso Inc, 60 days in the El Paso Herald-Post and CBS4. El Paso Matters says cameras will be covered if not removed in time; the Herald-Post reports the vote as unanimous. CBS4 describes the cameras as already decommissioned, which fits the state funding freeze Gov. Greg Abbott imposed in August. NOT ESTABLISHED: the actual deadline, the roll call, and what the new contract restrictions say. Ask the city clerk for the adopted resolution.

DALLAS IS SWITCHING OFF 321 OF ITS 684 FLOCK CAMERAS -- THE ONES THE STATE PAID FOR. The Dallas Morning News reported on Sep 2, 2026 that the city would deactivate those cameras on Sep 15 because about $1.7 million of their cost came from the Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority, whose money Gov. Greg Abbott froze in August. More than 300 city-funded cameras keep running under the three-year, $5.7 million contract the council approved in May 2025. This is a funding cut, not a policy decision against the cameras -- though council member Adam Bazaldua plans to propose cutting another $1.5 million from the programme in the budget. NOT ESTABLISHED: that the 321 went dark on schedule, and whether the budget cut passes. Ask the council how its final budget treats the Flock line.

COUNCIL REJECTED A FLOCK BAN 5-1 AND SENT A REGULATION BACK FOR REWRITING. Woonsocket's City Council voted down a resolution to ban Flock cameras, with Council President Daniel Gendron, Vice President Denise Sierra and members James Cournoyer, Michael Dubois and Sharon Harmon voting no and only the sponsor voting yes. A companion measure to regulate rather than ban the cameras was tabled so it can come back as a binding ordinance, built on the police department's existing eight-page ALPR policy with added oversight and transparency terms. Woonsocket is one of Rhode Island's earliest adopters: cameras went up in 2021 and the council approved them by resolution in 2022 and again in 2024. It stayed in while five other Rhode Island towns left. The next chance for residents is the public hearing when the ordinance returns -- ask the clerk for the date. NOT ESTABLISHED: the camera count and the sponsor's name.

The Fourth Circuit heard No. 26-1328, Hogarth v. Hayes, on Sep 15, 2026: a First Amendment challenge to North Carolina's ban on ballot selfies. The same morning another panel heard No. 25-2121, Jackson v. Thomson Reuters, on whether a statute barring disclosure of police officers' home addresses and phone numbers violates the First Amendment -- a press question about publishing public officials' information. AWAITING RULINGS in both.

PIQUA IS RUNNING THREE CAMPAIGNS AT ONCE AGAINST A META PROPOSAL the Ohio Capital Journal puts at 1,400 megawatts. A citizen charter amendment capping data centres at 25 MW is on the Nov 3, 2026 ballot. Organiser Alisha Lange's group is also pursuing a full data-centre ban by petition, likely for a special election, and recalls of the mayor and commissioners. A 25 MW cap against a 1,400 MW project is not a regulation, it is a refusal. NOT ESTABLISHED: whether the recall petitions have been filed or certified, the date of any special election, and the project's status with the city.

GROVE CITY VOTERS DECIDE A DATA-CENTRE MEASURE ON NOV 3, 2026: a referendum requiring citywide consent for heavy-industrial projects (broader than data centres); Pleasant Township is part of the same petition drive. It is one of 18 Ohio communities with a data-centre question on the November ballot, by the Ohio Capital Journal's count -- most using the citizen-petition charter-amendment template first seen in Sunbury, which sidesteps a council that would otherwise decide. The statewide version missed the July signature deadline, so local ballots are the route that is live this year. NOT ESTABLISHED: the project that prompted it, the signature count, and the exact ballot language.

ASHVILLE VOTERS DECIDE A DATA-CENTRE MEASURE ON NOV 3, 2026: a data-centre referendum that reached the ballot after a legal fight. It is one of 18 Ohio communities with a data-centre question on the November ballot, by the Ohio Capital Journal's count -- most using the citizen-petition charter-amendment template first seen in Sunbury, which sidesteps a council that would otherwise decide. The statewide version missed the July signature deadline, so local ballots are the route that is live this year. NOT ESTABLISHED: the project that prompted it, the signature count, and the exact ballot language.

HUBBARD VOTERS DECIDE A DATA-CENTRE MEASURE ON NOV 3, 2026: a full ban on data centres -- per OCJ the only Ohio city voting on a complete prohibition. It is one of 18 Ohio communities with a data-centre question on the November ballot, by the Ohio Capital Journal's count -- most using the citizen-petition charter-amendment template first seen in Sunbury, which sidesteps a council that would otherwise decide. The statewide version missed the July signature deadline, so local ballots are the route that is live this year. NOT ESTABLISHED: the project that prompted it, the signature count, and the exact ballot language.

URBANA VOTERS DECIDE A DATA-CENTRE MEASURE ON NOV 3, 2026: a charter amendment capping data centres at 7.5 MW -- the lowest cap on an Ohio ballot. It is one of 18 Ohio communities with a data-centre question on the November ballot, by the Ohio Capital Journal's count -- most using the citizen-petition charter-amendment template first seen in Sunbury, which sidesteps a council that would otherwise decide. The statewide version missed the July signature deadline, so local ballots are the route that is live this year. NOT ESTABLISHED: the project that prompted it, the signature count, and the exact ballot language.

UPPER SANDUSKY VOTERS DECIDE A DATA-CENTRE MEASURE ON NOV 3, 2026: a charter amendment capping data centres at 25 MW. It is one of 18 Ohio communities with a data-centre question on the November ballot, by the Ohio Capital Journal's count -- most using the citizen-petition charter-amendment template first seen in Sunbury, which sidesteps a council that would otherwise decide. The statewide version missed the July signature deadline, so local ballots are the route that is live this year. NOT ESTABLISHED: the project that prompted it, the signature count, and the exact ballot language.

OREGON VOTERS DECIDE A DATA-CENTRE MEASURE ON NOV 3, 2026: a charter amendment capping data centres at 25 MW. It is one of 18 Ohio communities with a data-centre question on the November ballot, by the Ohio Capital Journal's count -- most using the citizen-petition charter-amendment template first seen in Sunbury, which sidesteps a council that would otherwise decide. The statewide version missed the July signature deadline, so local ballots are the route that is live this year. NOT ESTABLISHED: the project that prompted it, the signature count, and the exact ballot language.

GRANVILLE VOTERS DECIDE A DATA-CENTRE MEASURE ON NOV 3, 2026: a charter amendment capping data centres at 25 MW. It is one of 18 Ohio communities with a data-centre question on the November ballot, by the Ohio Capital Journal's count -- most using the citizen-petition charter-amendment template first seen in Sunbury, which sidesteps a council that would otherwise decide. The statewide version missed the July signature deadline, so local ballots are the route that is live this year. NOT ESTABLISHED: the project that prompted it, the signature count, and the exact ballot language.

DEFIANCE VOTERS DECIDE A DATA-CENTRE MEASURE ON NOV 3, 2026: a charter amendment capping data centres at 25 MW. It is one of 18 Ohio communities with a data-centre question on the November ballot, by the Ohio Capital Journal's count -- most using the citizen-petition charter-amendment template first seen in Sunbury, which sidesteps a council that would otherwise decide. The statewide version missed the July signature deadline, so local ballots are the route that is live this year. NOT ESTABLISHED: the project that prompted it, the signature count, and the exact ballot language.

CONNEAUT VOTERS DECIDE A DATA-CENTRE MEASURE ON NOV 3, 2026: a charter amendment capping data centres at 25 MW. It is one of 18 Ohio communities with a data-centre question on the November ballot, by the Ohio Capital Journal's count -- most using the citizen-petition charter-amendment template first seen in Sunbury, which sidesteps a council that would otherwise decide. The statewide version missed the July signature deadline, so local ballots are the route that is live this year. NOT ESTABLISHED: the project that prompted it, the signature count, and the exact ballot language.

THE CITY OF ALACHUA VOTED ON SEP 14, 2026 TO DRAFT A 12-MONTH DATA-CENTER MORATORIUM -- a step taken over the mayor's resistance. Vice Mayor Jennifer Ringersen moved to have staff write a pause on accepting, processing and reviewing data-center applications while the city writes rules; Mayor Walter Welch tried to cut off Commissioner Jacob Fletcher's push to discuss it further, and the motion went through anyway. The prompt was a May listing that marketed a 104-acre parcel east of San Felasco Tech City as a high-megawatt data-center site -- land that is actually in unincorporated Alachua County, outside the city, whose officials have said current county codes do not allow data centers. A resident called 12 months too short but accepted it after a period in which the city had been, in her words, wide open. It is a draft, not a pause: the commission reviews it on Sep 28. NOT ESTABLISHED: the vote count, and whether the planning board also voted, as one TV headline says. A CONFLICTING ACCOUNT of Sep 14: the Independent Florida Alligator reports the mayor declared a motion to delay dead, that no moratorium vote was formally taken, and that residents walked out -- so whether the commission actually directed a draft is disputed. Sep 28 is confirmed as the next discussion.

STATESVILLE PAUSED NEW DATA CENTERS FOR 180 DAYS, UNANIMOUSLY, ON SEP 14, 2026 -- and the pause does not touch the project that started the argument. The council's final vote came on the consent agenda after a unanimous first reading in August, when a packed hearing heard more than a dozen speakers; council member James Pressly moved it and the length was stretched from 150 days to 180. It stops the city accepting, processing or approving data-center applications while staff write rules the Unified Development Code does not have. Previously approved projects are exempt, so the Compass data-center project on Stamey Farm Road, approved in 2025, goes ahead; several speakers asked for it to be included and were not answered in the motion. One speaker called regulation a Trojan horse, on the argument that writing rules concedes the projects will come. The pause runs to about Mar 13, 2027. NOT ESTABLISHED: what rules staff will propose, and whether the council extends the pause if they are not ready.

MARYSVILLE'S COUNCIL VOTED UNANIMOUSLY ON SEP 14, 2026 FOR A 12-MONTH DATA-CENTER MORATORIUM. For a year, no application to build or establish a data center will be accepted, processed or approved anywhere in the city's zoning jurisdiction, while the council studies the use, hears residents and rewrites the zoning ordinance. Server rooms that serve another business are excluded. No project has been named. NOT ESTABLISHED: whether any inquiry prompted it. (Vote date inferred from a Sep 16 report of a Monday meeting.)

CLARENDON COUNTY ADOPTED A DATA-CENTER MORATORIUM ON THIRD READING ON SEP 14, 2026, UNANIMOUSLY -- and said in the same breath that it does not touch the project most likely to come. 'Project 59', a proposed data center at the county industrial park, is outside its reach; Santee Electric Cooperative, which owns land that could host a facility, has not finalised plans or asked for tax breaks. Council described the pause as closing zoning loopholes for anything new, and said an outright ban was off the table because it would be discriminatory. NOT ESTABLISHED: the moratorium's length, and who is behind Project 59.

Mali's cybercrime law is being used to prosecute journalists. On 23 March 2026 the national centre for combating cybercrime sentenced Youssouf Sissoko, director of the newspaper L'Alternance, to two years in prison and a fine of one million CFA francs, about 1,525 euros, over an opinion article critical of Niger's head of state General Abdourahamane Tiani. BOTH JOURNALISTS ARRESTED IN JUNE 2026 WERE CONVICTED. Chahana Takiou of 22 Septembre was sentenced on 3 August 2026 to one year, six months of it to serve. Abdrahamane (Abdramane) Keita of Le Temoin was sentenced on 14 September 2026 by the national cybercrime unit to two years, all to serve, and fined one million CFA francs (about 1,500 euros) on 'regionalist' and false-information charges, over TV comments that the northern town of Kidal was administered by the jihadist group JNIM. Prosecutors had sought three years. SOURCING: RSF only for the verdicts. In November 2025 the same law was used to detain Boubacar Traore, director of the newspaper L'Empire, after a defamation suit by the owner of the company Petro-Bama over an article about an alleged land dispute. RSF reports these alongside the suspension of a phone-in programme and the silencing of international broadcasters across nearly six years of military transition. RSF notes the cybercrime law remains contested within the profession itself. No government justification for the individual prosecutions is recorded in the source read for this entry. Marker at Bamako; the source does not give the location of each proceeding. To ask: whether either man has appealed.

A JOURNALIST NICARAGUA MADE STATELESS, NOW HELD BY ICE. Luis Galeano, who directs the programme Cafe con Voz, was detained by ICE agents in Orlando on the morning of Sep 14, 2026 while driving for Uber, and is held at Baker Correctional Facility in Sanderson, Florida. He fled Nicaragua in 2018 during the Ortega government's crackdown on independent media, and Nicaragua stripped him of citizenship in February 2023 -- so removal raises the question of where to. A hearing is set for Oct 2. CPJ called it part of a pattern of immigration enforcement being used against journalists. Not established: his immigration status, the reason ICE gave for the arrest, and which court will hear the case. ACCOUNTS DIFFER ON DETAIL: the US Press Freedom Tracker places him at the Krome detention facility in Miami and says he has had an asylum application pending since 2019 and holds a work permit; CPJ says Baker Correctional Facility in Sanderson. Both give an Oct 2 hearing.

THE REASON FIELD, READ AT SCALE, SAYS 'LOL'. The Electronic Frontier Foundation analysed Flock search logs obtained through public-records requests, covering networks of more than 82,000 cameras, and published on Sept 14, 2026 the reasons officers typed to justify searches. Barberton, Ohio police logged searches as 'LOL' for more than two years; Richmond, California as 'Hehe'; Corona, California as 'WEIRD KID'; Lake County, Indiana as 'LMAO'; Eatonton, Georgia and Lake County, Ohio entered keyboard mashing. Accountability varied: Richmond counselled its officers, Columbus said a 90-day union-contract limit barred discipline, and Thornton said its 'weird' searches checked out. Flock replaced free text with a dropdown of offence categories in late 2025, which makes nonsense harder to type and false reasons easier to pick -- Mooresville's officer chose motor-vehicle infraction 29 times. Read it with Norfolk's 'la la la la': the justification field records whatever is typed, and nobody reads it unless a records request forces them to. NOT ESTABLISHED: how many searches carried nonsense reasons in total.

HE LEFT THE DEPARTMENT; HIS ACCESS TO ITS CAMERAS APPARENTLY DID NOT. The GBI arrested Anthony Trapani, 32, on Sept 14, 2026 on two counts of misusing a license plate reader system and one of violating his oath. According to the GBI, he used the Acworth Police Department's Flock system for non-law-enforcement purposes while he worked there, and the misuse continued after he transferred to the Emerson Police Department in 2025. Acworth asked for the investigation. The detail that matters is the one the release implies without explaining: searches of Acworth's system continuing after he was no longer an Acworth officer, whether through credentials never revoked or through Emerson's shared access. Either answer is a governance failure other departments can check today. NOT ESTABLISHED: how he reached Acworth's data after leaving, and whose plates he searched. ASK: when an officer leaves, how long until their credentials and any inter-agency sharing are cut?

THE SHERIFF'S OFFICE REFERRED IT ON SEPT 8; THE GBI ARRESTED HIM SIX DAYS LATER. Former Colquitt County deputy Bentley Hughes, 37, was arrested on Sept 14, 2026 on two counts of misusing a license plate reader system and two counts of violating his oath of office, after the sheriff's office asked the GBI to look at allegations that he used its Flock system for non-law-enforcement purposes. The case goes to the Southern Judicial Circuit District Attorney. It is one of two Georgia Flock arrests the GBI announced that day and part of a run of state referrals that no other state matches -- because Georgia has a specific misuse offence and departments are referring their own audit findings. NOT ESTABLISHED: whose plates were searched, how many times, or how the allegation surfaced.

FOUR ACCURACY NUMBERS CIRCULATE AND THEY MEASURE FOUR DIFFERENT THINGS. This is the most misquoted area of the plate-reader argument and the confusion runs in both directions, so here they are with their denominators. FLOCK ADVERTISES 93 PER CENT READ ACCURACY -- the share of plates the camera transcribes correctly. THE EFF MEASURED STATE MISREADS AT ABOUT ONE IN TEN in November 2024, the same kind of measure from an outside party. ROSEVILLE, CALIFORNIA FOUND 71 PER CENT OF ALERTS WRONG across 1,427 alerts in 2023 and 2024, from the police department's own analysis -- but that is the share of ALERTS, not of reads, and the two are not comparable. A VALLEJO POLICE STUDY reported in Police Chief magazine put HIT-LEVEL error as high as 37 per cent. AND THE LAPD INSPECTOR GENERAL FOUND 32.3 PER CENT OF STOLEN-VEHICLE ALERTS FALSE across two months, WITH THE CAMERAS READING CORRECTLY -- that one is database error, not recognition error. WHY THE 71 PER CENT FIGURE IS BOTH ACCURATE AND MISLEADING: a system can read plates correctly almost every time and still produce mostly false alerts, because genuinely wanted vehicles are rare. A high alert-error rate is arithmetically compatible with a high read-accuracy rate. Anyone citing 71 per cent as the camera's error rate is wrong; anyone citing 93 per cent as evidence the alerts are reliable is also wrong. THESE RATES COMPOUND RATHER THAN SUBSTITUTE. A misread can produce a false alert; so can a correct read against a stale hotlist; and the Institute for Justice found MACHINE ERROR ACCOUNTS FOR ONLY ABOUT A THIRD of its 27 documented wrongful-stop cases. AT FLOCK'S OWN STATED SCALE of more than 20 billion vehicle scans a month, even the vendor's 93 per cent implies on the order of 1.4 billion misreads monthly -- which is why a per-read rate is the wrong unit for arguing about consequences, and why the alert and hit-level rates are the ones that reach people.

A COUNCIL VOTE IS A DECISION, NOT A REMOVAL. This map holds 167 records marked `removed`, and each assumes that when a jurisdiction ended its contract the cameras came down. TWO DOCUMENTED CASES SAY THAT IS AN ASSUMPTION. In LITTLETON, MASSACHUSETTS the Select Board ordered all six cameras powered down in May 2026 while it reviewed the technology and the governance policies -- and found the vendor had turned them back on by itself. The town moved to cancel outright, ordered the cameras removed and had the electricity cut. In EVANSTON, ILLINOIS the city terminated in late August 2025 and deactivated 19 cameras; Flock then BEGAN REINSTALLING CAMERAS ACROSS THE CITY, apparently without the knowledge of local officials or residents. Evanston issued a CEASE-AND-DESIST ORDER in September, after which the company said it would uninstall them. TWO TOWNS, TWO STATES, TEN MONTHS APART, THE SAME PATTERN: service a customer had ended was restored, and in both cases it took a further enforcement step -- an electricity cut, a legal order -- before the hardware actually stopped. WHAT THIS SHOULD CHANGE ABOUT HOW COUNTS ARE READ, INCLUDING OURS: every tally of cancellations on this subject, ours and the seven public trackers, records the DECISION. None of them verifies the removal. NOT ESTABLISHED: how often this happens. Two cases is a pattern worth naming and not a rate. THE QUESTION TO ASK any jurisdiction on a cancellation list is simply whether the cameras are physically gone and on what date -- which is answerable, and which nobody appears to be asking.

Georgia's running total reached at least 20 public officials arrested statewide for misusing the Flock license-plate system, per Reason's Jul 31, 2026 tally -- the densest cluster of ALPR-misuse prosecutions anywhere in the country, and the aggregate behind the individual Georgia pins on this map. Institute for Justice attorney Michael Soyfer called it just the tip of the iceberg, arguing the reason misuse goes undetected nationwide is that plate searches run with almost no oversight -- routinely without reasonable suspicion, probable cause, or a warrant, sometimes logged under a rationale as thin as the words criminal justice. BOTH READINGS OF THE NUMBER, per the standing caveat on every misuse aggregate here: Flock introduced its AI Audit Assistance tool in April 2026 and says it has helped agencies find cases that would otherwise have gone undetected -- so part of the arrest wave is better detection, not worse behaviour. Soyfer's counter is on the record too: there is little public information on how the audit tools work, Flock's customer is the police department, and relying on them is leaving the police to police themselves -- reactive Whac-A-Mole where the Fourth Amendment prescribes a prophylactic warrant requirement. Courts have so far declined to require one for plate searches; the Norfolk plaintiffs are appealing. Pinned at Georgia's centroid as a statewide aggregate. UPDATE, 14 SEP 2026: FOUR MORE, INCLUDING A STATE CORRECTIONS AGENT. Since the Savannah arrests the GBI has charged four more people with misusing Flock, each after the employing agency referred its own staff: former Covington officer Michael Canty (arrested Aug 26); Georgia Department of Corrections Special Agent in Charge Robert Keim (Sep 1) -- the first state-agency official in the wave; Anthony Trapani, accused of misuse at Acworth police that continued after he moved to Emerson police in 2025 (Sep 14); and former Colquitt County deputy Bentley Hughes, charged six days after his sheriff asked for the probe (Sep 14). With Clayton County on Sep 2, that is five Georgia agencies in under three weeks. The Trapani case is the one to note: misuse that followed an officer from one department to the next. NOT ESTABLISHED in any release: whose vehicles were searched, or how often. Earlier the same summer the GBI arrested a Conyers dispatch supervisor (Jul 22), a former Polk County officer who searched Cedartown's cameras (Aug 7) and the Dallas police 911 director (Aug 12). Each now has its own pin; these are the GBI's announcements, not a new statewide total.

CHESTERTON VOTED TO CANCEL OR NOT RENEW ITS FLOCK CONTRACT between late August and Sep 22, 2026, according to WNDU, which listed it with Fort Wayne, Chesterton and the counties of Marshall, Starke, Kosciusko and Noble as part of an Indiana surge of exits in 30 days. The station did not say which body voted, on what date, by what margin, or whether the contract was cancelled or left to expire. Recorded so the Indiana count is complete. NOT ESTABLISHED: every detail beyond the direction of the decision -- the town council minutes would settle them. THE TOWN COUNCIL VOTED UNANIMOUSLY ON SEP 14, 2026 TO END THE FLOCK CONTRACT -- AFTER ONE OF ITS OWN OFFICERS MISUSED IT. Police Chief Tim Richardson investigated a reported misuse of Flock by a Chesterton officer over the summer; the officer, reported as a former corporal, has resigned. While auditing, Richardson cut off every officer's access except his own and his command staff's. Chesterton is one of several northwest Indiana exits in the same weeks, alongside Porter County's own misuse case one level up. NOT ESTABLISHED: what the officer searched, whether the case was referred to prosecutors, and when the cameras come down.

KOKOMO COUNCIL PASSED THE DATA-CENTER ZONING RULES 8-1. On Sep 14 the Common Council made data centers a permitted use in all industrial zones and the OIA-OL overlay, with Bob Stephenson (D-2) the lone no, per the Kokomo Lantern. The first reading on Aug 24 had passed 6-2. The rules as reported: buildings at least 350 ft from any existing home, a 200 ft setback from lot lines touching residential districts, transmission lines 100 ft from the lot edge, no equipment testing between 5 p.m. and 7 a.m., screening of mechanical equipment, and a master site plan of full build-out. Sites under 1 MW and 10,000 sq ft are exempt. Residents had asked for water studies, larger setbacks and a moratorium; none was adopted. Councilman Matt Grecu said existing noise limits (50 dB next to homes) already apply and that without an ordinance nothing could be enforced. Not established: the names of the eight yes votes and whether the setbacks changed on the night.

FIRED FOR HANDING FLOCK LOCATIONS TO A DOMESTIC-VIOLENCE SUSPECT. A San Jose police officer, not named, was fired in September 2026 after using his personal phone to pull Flock plate-reader data and share vehicle locations with his cousin -- a suspect in a domestic-violence case. Chief Paul Joseph said an officer who violates public trust that severely cannot keep the badge, and referred the case to California POST for decertification. NOT established: how it was detected, what the victim's exposure was, and whether anyone will be charged -- neither the officer nor his cousin had been as of Sep 13. This is the misuse case with the worst direction of harm: not an officer watching someone in his own life, but the network used to help an alleged abuser find a target. San Jose runs about 474 Flock cameras and is already the subject of an IJ Fourth Amendment suit.

ARRESTED FIFTEEN YEARS AFTER THE STORY. Istanbul police detained former Dogan News Agency reporter Selahattin Gunday on 10 Sep 2026 and a court jailed him pending trial on 12 Sep, over footage and reporting from 2011 of intelligence operative Kasif Kozinoglu arriving at court after his arrest. The charges are revealing the identity of an intelligence officer and unlawfully obtaining personal data. His camera operator from that assignment, Idris Tiftikci, was detained the same day and released pending trial. The case sits inside a reopened investigation into Kozinoglu's death in prison in 2011. The agency Gunday worked for has since closed. His lawyer has objected to the detention. Not established: whether the objection succeeded, and when or whether an indictment will be filed.

HANDED OVER, THEN JAILED ON A FILE HIS LAWYER CANNOT SEE. Syrian government forces captured Kurdish journalist Ahmet Polad (legal name Mehmet Nizam Aslan), who reported for the Etkin News Agency and Ozgur TV, in Raqqa on 18 Jan 2026. After nearly eight months in Syrian custody he was transferred to Turkiye on 8 Sep 2026, and an Istanbul court ordered his arrest on 11 Sep. The charges are not public: his lawyer told CPJ the case file is restricted and she has not been shown the warrant. She says he was beaten daily in Syria and kept in a cell too low to stand up in, and that his health is now very poor. Turkiye's Justice Ministry did not respond to CPJ. Not established: what he is accused of, and under what procedure Syria handed him to Turkiye.