Drivers in Northeast Georgia may have noticed more cameras lately at busy intersections, in neighborhoods and even on the University of Georgia’s campus.
The public’s perception of these cameras, however, is often not quite right.
The poles with mounted solar panels look like speed-monitoring devices. In reality, these are automatic license plate readers (ALPRs), operated by Flock Safety, an Atlanta-based company that has quietly built a vast network across the United States.
Georgia is a hot spot for these cameras with more than 5,000 across the state, according to the DeFlock map. This makes Georgia among the states with the highest density of the company’s surveillance units.
Clarke and Barrow counties are no exception.
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Local law enforcement offices are establishing contracts with Flock Safety and say the cameras help them find stolen vehicles or wanted individuals faster. Barrow County’s criminal investigation commander, Capt. Decorian Almond, said his county has around 70 Flock cameras in use and hopes to install more this year due because of how efficient they are in investigations.
“We have seen results as far as crime decreasing, being able to make more arrests and find out who’s doing certain crimes,” Almond said.
Critics of the cameras, however, say they are a breach of privacy and at risk for potential misuse that would do more harm than good.
Felix Bell, a member of Athens-Clarke County’s Public Civilian Safety Oversight Board (PCSOB), said local law enforcement has not been forthcoming with information about the cameras, and that in itself should raise concerns for the public.
“When I asked, as part of the board, to see what data they are collecting, not only will they not tell me, they don’t legally have to,” Bell said.
The general function of these cameras is to capture images of all passing vehicles. License plate numbers are documented, but details such as scratches, dents and bumper stickers are also recorded. The data is uploaded into a shared network where subscribers can access information collected by the cameras.
These cameras may be publicly or privately owned, and subscribers are able to access a basic live feed of vehicle data the cameras capture. This includes license plate numbers, vehicle make and model, time and location. Law enforcement units are then able to connect with other agencies to share their networks.
Flock was founded in Atlanta as a start-up by two Georgia Institute of Technology graduates in 2017. In June 2018, after the two started to send out contracts to local police stations, Georgia put into place a general guideline for how law enforcement could use these cameras. O.C.G.A. § 35-1-22 was enacted in 2018 and updated in 2024 as the cameras grew in popularity. This code is meant to provide baseline regulations on law enforcement agencies regarding how they use the data collected.
The code requires all data collected be deleted within 30 months and also states that “law enforcement agencies may exchange or share captured license plate data with other law enforcement agencies for law enforcement purposes.”
Additionally, anyone who requests data and uses information collected by an ALPR for any purposes besides law enforcement could be faced with a misdemeanor. The stations themselves must also have their own training guidelines per the code, but what this looks like could vary by station.
Law enforcement officials like Almond say the information they collect is not public data and cannot be obtained through open records requests asking for specific vehicles. However, the concern that private entities with Flock subscriptions could access this data is a growing fear among some members of the public.
They have no control over the Flock cameras, they have no control over the video feed, they have no control over where that video feed goes,” Bell said.
Other community members and social media users raise similar concerns, especially after national stories of Flock data being shared with agencies such as I.C.E. were released. The company has also received national praise, being credited with helping track down the Brown University shooter last December. Despite national backlash on the technology, Almond insists their data is in their own control.
“Information getting to I.C.E. and things like that is not happening,” Almond said.
Athens-Clarke County police added more Flock coverage over the University of Georgia’s 2026 spring break as additional cameras were installed across high-traffic areas.
Despite the growing awareness and skepticism about data privacy surrounding Flock cameras, there is support among local members of the community who believe the benefits outweigh concerns about surveillance.
After a triple shooting in downtown Athens in March 2026, one Instagram comment under a Grady Newsource story about Flock cameras was, “A triple shooting with a murder was just solved using Flock cameras in less than 12 hours. Is that good?” Reporters reached out to Athens-Clarke County police to confirm whether this statement was true and did not receive a response.
At the center of the debate lies a broader issue: how much surveillance is acceptable in the name of public safety? Cities nationwide like Santa Cruz and Denver are canceling contracts with Flock because the surveillance and threat of misuse.
Northeast Georgia, however, continues to expand its network, and Athens is a prime example.
Sonja Sutcavage and Andrew Otten are journalism majors in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
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