Former Acworth officer being investigated for alleged misuse of Flock
The short version: An ex-Acworth officer is reportedly under investigation for misusing Flock camera data, adding to a growing list of Georgia ALPR abuse cases.
Our Take
Credit to 11Alive for digging into this one. Another metro Atlanta department, another officer allegedly caught using Flock's license plate network for something it was never supposed to be used for. We don't know the full details yet, and we won't pretend to, but the pattern here is becoming impossible to ignore: these systems keep getting sold to city councils as narrow public-safety tools, and then someone on the inside treats the database like a personal lookup service.
This is exactly the risk privacy advocates have been flagging since Flock cameras started going up on corners across the country. Once a department builds a searchable log of everyone's comings and goings, the technology doesn't care whether the person running a query is chasing a stolen car or just curious about an ex, a neighbor, or a coworker. Audit logs and 'policies' only matter if agencies actually enforce them and tell the public when they don't.
If there's a camera like this near you, we want you to know about it. Check our camera map to see what's already watching your area, and if you want to push back on unchecked ALPR deployment in your own city, our take-action page is a good place to start.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of 11Alive, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.