Flock cameras will be abused. That is a fact. Local cops in Georgia have been arrested

Our Take

Alec Miller, a candidate for Georgia State Senate District 31, is making a point we've been hammering on for a while: ALPR abuse isn't some paranoid hypothetical, it's a documented pattern. When a candidate for state office is citing local police arrests tied to misuse of Flock cameras as part of his campaign platform, that tells you this issue has moved well past the "trust us" phase and into the realm of actual criminal referrals. Credit to Miller for putting this on the record in a political context, where it's often easier to just stay quiet and avoid picking a fight with law enforcement vendors.

The pattern here is depressingly familiar. A department rolls out Flock's network of automated license plate readers promising it's strictly for solving serious crimes, then someone with access — an officer, a dispatcher, whoever — decides to run plates for a personal reason that has nothing to do with public safety. Stalking an ex. Checking on a neighbor. Selling lookups on the side. These systems log millions of plates a day across thousands of communities, and every one of those data points is a potential temptation for whoever holds the login. Georgia isn't unique; it's just where the receipts happen to be public right now.

This is exactly why audit trails, strict use policies, and real transparency about who's accessing this data matter more than the marketing copy about "solving crimes." If you want to see how far this surveillance net has already spread near you, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back against it in your own town, our take-action page is a good place to start.