DeKalb County Deputy fired for allegedly misusing Flock cameras
The short version: A DeKalb County deputy allegedly abused Flock ALPR access, proving that 'trust us' policy promises can't stop insiders from misusing mass surveillance data.
Our Take
Credit to JordyBReporting for digging into the case of Sgt. Kabiru Salawu, a DeKalb County deputy reportedly fired and charged over misuse of Flock Safety's license plate camera network. This is exactly the scenario privacy advocates have been warning about since these cameras started multiplying on street corners nationwide: the technology doesn't just watch the public, it hands enormous power to whoever has login credentials, and that power doesn't police itself.
Flock and local agencies love to tout audit logs and 'reason for search' fields as safeguards, but logs only catch misuse after the fact — if anyone bothers to check them. A badge and a password can turn a nationwide ALPR dragnet into a personal tool, whether for stalking, harassment, or something we haven't even heard about yet. One deputy getting caught doesn't mean the system is self-correcting; it means we only know about the cases that got sloppy enough to surface.
Every one of these stories is a reminder that the real debate isn't whether individual officers are good or bad, it's whether any department should have this much unaccountable surveillance infrastructure in the first place. Check our camera map to see what's logging plates in your area, and visit our take-action page if you want to push back on it.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of JordyBReporting 🎙️, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.