Flock, the increasingly controversial automatic license plate reader (ALPR) company, has previously highlighted at least four police departments on its YouTube page that have since faced allegations of misusing the company’s technology.
The company featured the Savannah Police Department in a March 2022 YouTube video. Four officers and two workers from the department were recently placed on administrative leave after an internal investigation found “potential misuses” of Flock’s ALPR system. Also in Georgia, the Albany Police Department was the subject of a glossy 2024 video. Five officers from the department were recently arrested and charged in connection to their alleged misuse of the technology.
Flock also highlighted the Sandy Springs Police Department in a 2020 video about how the company was helping police combat so-called porch pirates. Last year, a Sandy Springs Police Department officer was terminated amid an internal investigation into alleged misuse of Flock’s technology. The Baytown Police Department was featured in Flock’s 2025 video about responding to a carjacking; last week, a Baytown police officer resigned amid ongoing investigations into alleged misuse of the technology.
Allegations of ALPR misuse have plagued police departments across the country, including in states like Kansas, North Carolina, Ohio, and Wisconsin. In Georgia alone—home to the Savannah, Albany, and Sandy Springs police departments—allegations of ALPR misuse have also been reported at the sheriff’s offices of Coweta County, Cherokee County, Habersham County, and Richmond County.
While these incidents show that police departments have mechanisms to detect and address ALPR misuse, Flock's promotional materials show that it can occur even at departments that were touted as exemplary.
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In response to WIRED’s request for comment, Flock spokesperson Paris Lewbel emphasized that “misuse was identified and addressed.” He said that incidents of misuse shouldn’t discount Flock’s usefulness to police departments.
“That is exactly why accountability tools and internal review processes exist,” Lewbel said in an emailed statement. “When improper use is detected, agencies can investigate, take action, and hold individuals accountable. That should be viewed as evidence that oversight mechanisms are working, not as a sign that the entire department or city should be broadly condemned.”
The Flock YouTube channel’s video about the Albany Police Department features interviews with senior crime and intelligence analyst David Sparks, whom Flock recognized as a “Power Partner” in 2024, and chief Michael J. Persley. In it, Sparks describes Flock as a crucial tool for fighting “property crime” and “crimes of opportunity.”
“To ensure that the community trusts us, there are a lot of things we have to do, and the first part of building that trust is open, honest transparency and communication,” Persley says in the video. “So I'm not trying to listen to your conversations, I'm not trying to see what's happening in your backyard. We wanna make sure that you're safe.”
On July 6, the Albany Police Department announced that it had fired five officers following an internal investigation into "serious policy violations involving the improper use" of ALPRs. The police department said that three of these officers were fired for improper use of ALPRs, while the other two were fired for “separate, unrelated policy violations uncovered during the administrative investigation.” The Georgia Bureau of Investigation charged the officers for misuse of license plate data and violating their oaths of office.
The Albany Police Department did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.
Flock’s Savannah video centers on an interview with then major of police Robert Gavin, who praised how Flock facilitates data-sharing between different law enforcement agencies.
“We spent a lot of time doing community talks about what we're gonna use them for, what we're not gonna use them for,” Gavin says, adding that the overall objective is to “keep everybody safe.”
On July 31, Savannah police mayor Van Johnson wrote in a Facebook post that the allegations involving the six employees had been referred to the GBI to determine whether criminal charges should be filed.
The Savannah Police Department did not respond for comment. The GBI confirmed that it investigated the incidents in Savannah and Albany, but didn’t provide information, noting that the Savannah investigation is “still active.”
According to Johnson, the Savannah Police Department conducted an internal investigation through the Flock Safety Audit Assistance Program, which Flock introduced in April. In a press release announcing the tool, Flock said it “continuously monitors system activity and surfaces search patterns that fall outside an agency’s typical usage.” Savannah police chief Lenny Gunther told a local news outlet that the investigation surfaced 127 inappropriate searches out of the 39,000 it conducted this year.
“Public trust is non-negotiable,” Johnson said in his Facebook statement. “These tools exist to keep our community safe, not for personal or unauthorized use.”
In 2020, Flock posted a video by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about the Sandy Springs Police Department’s arrest of a porch pirate. The video did not feature any interviews with Sandy Springs Police Department personnel, but noted that the man was arrested after a Flock camera captured the license plate of the suspect.
About five years later, the Sandy Springs Police Department launched an internal investigation into whether one of its officers had misused Flock’s technology. According to investigators, the officer allegedly ran ALPR searches to support beta testing for Signal 8, a law enforcement software company that employed the officer in a second job.
This officer, the police department claimed, did not cooperate with its investigation and was subsequently terminated.
Meanwhile, Flock showcased the Baytown Police Department in 2025 as part of a brief series highlighting cases where police said Flock was instrumental in apprehending a suspect.
“We use it multiple times every day, and once I log in to my computer, Flock is the first thing I click on,” a Baytown police officer says.
On July 30, Baytown police chief John Stringer announced the resignation of a police officer who had been under investigation for allegedly misusing Flock’s technology. The Baytown Police Department did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.
In his video statement, Stringer said that two investigations into the officer’s alleged misuse—one internal, one criminal—remained ongoing.
“Accountability to the fullest extent of the law will be pursued,” Stringer added.
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