Flock camera abuse allegations mount after company rolls out audit tool

The company’s recently launched self-audit tool alerts departments of searches that may seem unusual compared to the agency’s normal usage, the AJC previously reported. Those audits have led to internal investigations, allegations of misuse and, ultimately, criminal charges in some cases.

A former police officer in Polk County, west of Atlanta, who worked on the GBI’s Northwest Georgia Drug Task Force is facing four misdemeanor charges of retaining license plate reader system data, Polk County jail records show.

Tracey Royston was arrested after the GBI investigation, which came at the Polk County police’s request, found she had improperly accessed the Flock system several times, the GBI said in a news release. She had access to the Cedartown Police Department’s system as a task force agent, the GBI said, but had used it for nonlaw enforcement purposes in 2024 and 2025.

The agency did not offer specifics about the nature of the misuse and declined to comment beyond the news release. Royston didn’t respond to a request for comment Sunday.

Dozens of similar cases across the state are leading to arrests, resignations and suspensions, capturing media attention and raising public awareness about the technology and its potential abuse. Public outcry came to a head at a recent Dunwoody City Council meeting where, over several residents’ objections, the city renewed its contract with Flock, the AJC previously reported.

DeKalb County Police suspended eight employees recently for “violations of department policy,” when using the Flock system, a spokesperson confirmed in a statement. None of them have been terminated or charged, the spokesperson said. The violations were discovered in an audit and verified in an administrative investigation.

“Regular audits of system usage are conducted to ensure compliance with department policy, identify potential misuse, and take appropriate corrective action when violations occur,” the DeKalb statement says.

In Savannah, six police department employees were fired this month after the Flock audit software identified potential misuse, which led to an internal investigation, the city’s mayor, Van Johnson, said in a post to Facebook. Their names were not released pending a criminal investigation by the GBI, the mayor said.

“The safeguards worked. The activity was identified, investigated, and decisive action was taken,” Johnson said.

A former Effingham County Sheriff’s Office employee is accused of accessing the department’s Flock system after he no longer worked there, the GBI said in a news release. Andrae Wright accessed the system more than 60 times in a three-week period while he was an investigator with the Ogeechee Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s office, the GBI said. Wright was arrested and charged with misuse of the license plate reader system, stalking, computer invasion of privacy and violation of oath of office, the GBI said. He did not respond to a request for comment.

A dispatch supervisor at the Conyers Police Department has been arrested and charged after an audit found she accessed the Flock system “more than 30 times between April and July” for nonlaw enforcement purposes, the GBI said in a news release. Paige Forte was booked into the Rockdale County Jail and charged with misuse of a license plate reader system, records show. She did not respond to a request for comment.

Three Richmond County Sheriff’s deputies were terminated and arrested for allegedly misusing the system, the agency posted to Facebook in July. Lt. John McKenzie, Investigator Curtis Hoskins and Deputy Joshua Johnson all were charged with violation of oath of office and misuse of license plate readers after an investigation found they each “intentionally misused the Flock Camera System for a nonlaw enforcement purpose,” the post says.

McKenzie and Johnson did not respond to requests for comment. Hoskins declined to comment and referred questions to his attorney, who did not respond to a request for comment Sunday.

In Habersham County, a deputy was terminated and arrested after using the system in “an isolated incident involving an individual with whom he had a personal relationship at the time,” officials posted to Facebook in July. Christian Brewer was charged with felony violation of oath of office and two counts of misusing the license plate reader system, officials said. Brewer did not respond to a request for comment.

“Although the choice of this deputy casts a bad light on the use of this technology, Flock continues to be a valuable tool for law enforcement that has been proven to save lives,” Habersham Sheriff Robin Krockum said in the Facebook post.

Flock has said the majority of its estimated 140,000 active users accessing data each month are using the system appropriately, but any corruption within law enforcement “needs to be outed and those people need to be held accountable,” Josh Thomas, chief communications officer for Flock, told AJC previously.

The Atlanta-based company’s network of more than 120,000 cameras across 49 states makes an estimated 20 billion scans each month, according to the company’s website.