GUEST EDITORIAL: Albers: Balancing Safety and Privacy: Getting Flock Camera Oversight Right in Georgia

By: Sen. John Albers (R-Roswell)

As a Georgia State Senator, Chairman of the Committee on Public Safety, former firefighter and EMT, and business executive, I have spent my career focused on protecting communities while upholding the trust that makes effective public safety possible. Recent reports of misuse of Flock Safety license plate reader cameras by several law enforcement officers across our state demand serious attention. The good news is that the problems have been identified, agencies and the company are responding, and we have an opportunity to get this right.

Automated license plate readers have proven to be valuable tools. They help locate stolen vehicles and identify suspects in serious crimes more quickly than traditional methods alone. In 2023, an active shooter in Midtown Atlanta was quickly apprehended in Cobb County using this technology before he could harm more people, and in 2025, Flock cameras helped locate more than 10,000 missing persons across the country. Georgia agencies have also used them to solve cases that might otherwise have gone cold.

We know what can happen when law and order break down. Georgians have no desire to return to the unrest and destruction we witnessed in 2020, when law enforcement was called to restore order under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. Technology of this kind, properly governed, strengthens the thin blue line between order and chaos.

Yet technology is only as trustworthy as the people and systems that control it. Audits have revealed instances in which officers accessed Flock databases for personal reasons unrelated to any investigation, including checking on acquaintances or partners without a legitimate purpose. These actions violate existing state law prohibiting misuse of license plate data and, more importantly, erode public confidence. When a tool designed to protect the public is turned to private ends, trust suffers. That is unacceptable.

I am encouraged that law enforcement leaders themselves are confronting the issue. Many departments have conducted internal audits and terminated or charged those who violated policy and law. Flock Safety has also acted. The company recently announced it is changing its default data retention period from 30 days to seven days, requiring its Audit Assistance feature for all customers by the end of the year, adding proactive lockouts for abnormal activity, and giving agencies more granular control over data sharing. These steps are constructive and necessary, but Flock must do more to ensure their technology has increased safeguards in place.

Short-term fixes alone are not enough. That is why I have encouraged and am working alongside the Georgia Association of Sheriffs and the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police on a collaborative task force. Together, we are identifying immediate operational improvements, stronger internal controls, clearer training, tighter access protocols, and consistent auditing while preparing thoughtful long-term recommendations for the General Assembly when we return in January. Flock must continue strengthening its own technical and contractual safeguards so that they reinforce, rather than substitute for, sound law enforcement policies.

Georgia already has a statutory framework governing license plate reader data. Our task is to ensure that the framework has teeth, that oversight is routine rather than reactive, and that privacy protections keep pace with technological capability. We must preserve the legitimate investigative value of these systems while preventing abuse. Public safety and privacy are complementary responsibilities of good government, and responsible oversight of these cameras ensures we do not have to sacrifice one to achieve the other.

I have spent much of my life backing the men and women of law enforcement, and that commitment will never change. They deserve effective tools to protect themselves and the public, but backing the blue does not mean "writing a blank check" for government surveillance. Our founding fathers warned against surrendering essential liberty for temporary safety, and that principle remains relevant today. We do not have to choose between safe communities and individual liberty. As Benjamin Franklin famously warned, those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

I approach this work with the same practical mindset that guided me as a first responder and executive: identify the problem, bring the right people to the table, implement workable solutions, and measure results. Georgians deserve technology that helps keep them safe without compromising their reasonable expectations of privacy. By working constructively with sheriffs, chiefs, the company, and the public, we can achieve both. That is the standard I will pursue and uphold as the Senate Chairman of Public Safety and as an elected official of the people of Georgia.

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Sen. John Albers serves as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Safety. He represents the 56^th Senate District, which includes portions of Cherokee, Cobb and Fulton counties. He may be reached by phone at (404) 463-8055 or by email at [email protected].

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