Dougherty County police enact audit policy for Flock camera system

Our Take

WALB News 10 reports that Dougherty County police have rolled out a new audit policy for their Flock Safety camera network, saying a review turned up no intentional misuse so far. Credit to WALB for getting this on the record, because "no intentional misuse found" is a phrase that deserves scrutiny, not applause. An internal audit designed and graded by the same department running the cameras is not independent oversight — it's a department checking its own homework.

The real questions rarely get asked in these segments: who requested the audit, what counts as "misuse," how far back does the log review go, and is there a public, searchable record of every search an officer runs? Flock's own marketing leans hard on the idea that audits prove accountability, but an audit policy only matters if it's enforced by someone outside the agency, with real consequences, and if residents can actually see the results. Otherwise it's a PR move dressed up as a safeguard.

Every one of these systems — audited or not — is still vacuuming up the travel patterns of people who've done nothing wrong. If you want to know whether Dougherty County or your own community is running this kind of surveillance net, check our camera map, and if you want to push back on unchecked ALPR deployment, start with our take-action resources.